The love of money
2001 11 22
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I think I'll long for a life of near-destitute academia, where one's importance as a person is not determined by the size of one's bank account.
I'm as much a capitalist as the next person, in that I want money and all the joys it can bring. But I'm enough of a socialist to be disgusted by money being treated as some sort of sacred cow. The struggle for money for no other purpose than to have more of it for its own sake, is repugnant to me.
I discovered just the other day - while listening to someone describe a friend of theirs only in terms of job status and bank account - that I actually loathe people who seem to only be impressed by, or want only to impress others by, their money and "importance" of job. It also made me wonder if that person could think of nothing else to say of someone they call "friend". I don't know about you lot, but I define my friends by means other than the superficial nature of their existance.
Certainly, money is an important thing, and certainly having a decent job is also important; but if those are the only things you can think of to define yourself as a person - if that's what you've become slave to - then you certainly have a lot of empty places in your self; don't you?
Coming from the perspective of one who's had very little money her entire life, the prospect of having a lot of it is certainly attractive; but not having money seems to do one of three things to people. Either it makes you realise how unimportant it is in the fulfilment of a person; you become a slave to getting it and become shallow; or you become totally repugnant of it simply because you are a have-not.
Not having money has helped me personally to realise what things do have real worth in life. Value is not solely defined by something worth its weight in gold bullion.
Not having money has also made me extremely conscious of security. Certainly, I want money so that I do not have to worry about what will become of me when I'm elderly, where my next meal is going to come from, and not having to turn my friends down when they want to go out because my last dollar has to go towards buying a litre of milk rather than a bottle of beer down the pub.
Mind you, that's where the debate of worth and value really comes to the fore. I will, and have, starved myself for a few days so that I could spend time with friends. People are more important than money. Reading good books and improving the self are more important than money. Doing something so that you have somethng to share with others, is more important than money.
It has always seemed to me that a person who only talks of their financial resources, doesn't have very much to say for themselves. it's not merely repugnant, it's also boring.
Then again, you have to wonder about any person who obsesses so constantly about any topic. We all have our obsessions. We would not be human without them. There are, however, reasonable limits.