Does money corrupt, or do corrupt people have the easiest time making money? I've never understood the amount of excess in the country. It may be naive of me to say, but I will never need a gold toilet.
There is a cap on the amount of money I want to have. This amount is enough for me to live a middle-class life off of the interest, spending the free time from work to do whatever I want. The problem with millionaires and billionaires might be that they have no preexisting goal. They just live aimlessly, pursuing their ambition of having more money.
The problem is also from the people they surround themselves with. Competition can drive consumerism. If someone buys a giant flat-screen TV, their neighbor wants a giant flat-screen HDTV. In that same scenario with someone who has money to blow, they would buy an HDTV that possibly goes around and devours all lesser TVs. Technology like that is not even out of Japan yet. It would cost thousands to bring to America.
So the trick for staying down to earth is to set goals, have poor friends, and defending your television from Japanese robots.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Diamond-Encrusted Coffee Straw
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4 comments:
At this rate, I'll be happy if I can survive long enough to retire at 70 and sill be able to afford food until they stick me in the mud. :P
It's no coincidence that miserly is misery without the "l".
NTG-
I'd agree with your "goal" 100%, as would most Americans, I assume. All we really want is an anonymous, "comfortable" middle class lifestyle, without worries like college costs, foreclosures, medical costs, etc. That's all we really want, right?
Until we have that. I haven't yet gotten to that point, but I do know that 5 years ago, when I was making less than 1/2 of my current wage, I just knew that all I needed to make was another, say, 50%, and I'd be sitting pretty. Now I'm looking at my next raise thinking that it can't possibly come soon enough, because I can't afford to live on my current salary. I need that extra income. How in the WORLD did I live on half of this 5 years ago?
"Comfortable" is a relative term. Back then, "comfortable" was not worrying about making the rent. Today, it's not worrying about making the cell phone payment or my Mountain Dew budget. Tomorrow? Well, geez, I've GOTTA get me one of them Japanese TV sets...
Jamie,
I complete agree with your philosophy. Something that has always stuck with me back from psychology in school is that people generally have a set happiness level. If something happens like winning the lottery, their happiness will spike, but after a period of time, it will drop back down to its normal point. I swear I wrote about this, but I guess I was just planning to. Expect the topic to come up someday.
I try to be satisfied, but of course I want financial security, as does everyone. This post was more of a message to my (fingers crossed) future self to always live modestly. My short term goal is money, and I hope my long term goal does not become money, but we'll see what new TV sets come out.
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