Maggie's Farm

Way to go, Sarkozy, for defying the greedy hedge funds and venture capitalists! But God help him, as they fight dirty. It would be funny to hear him comment on our expensively coiffed student of poverty, Edwards. By the way, hasn't anyone been able to figure out what he made in salary, and benefits,etc.?

No, NJ it is not simple envy, and you are rather testy. Perhaps your favorite godfather is a hedge fund pirate?

In fact,I do believe in live and let live. My life is difficult, but I have never had the slightest interest in becoming rich. I support five people, and am educating 3 children, including one with a disability, and one with a chronic illness, on your single person's salary, but I have all I really want or need. It helps that I don't waste money on beer, and that I already have collected 40,000 books (college and grad school, and years of haunting the dump and thrift shops).

I do care if people are greedy, as it is one of the seven deadly sins. Someone I knew personally, who seemed a kind, God-fearing friend turned out to be a literal crook in that field. Fleecing people. I was embarassed that I had been fooled by the charming facade. I lost no money because I would never risk anything in such speculative ventures, but what troubled me was that all of us who knew him were fooled. Evil can wear a very pleasant face at times. My researches since have convinced me that their debacle was not an isolated incident. Certain segments of our society are rotten to the core, and I hope you do not actually believe their cant about creating wealth. They collect wealth for themselves.

To say that, as a Christian, I am revolted by the creed of "greed is good", is not to say that I am against freedom. Still, I like pirates in movies, but not in real life. You're right to say that "there is room in freedom for all sorts of people with all sorts , etc." My point is simply that people are free to make all sorts of choices, but they are not all morally neutral.

But I can't change the certainty of youth. Enjoy it, while it lasts, but remember what Matthew says,

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way,
that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because
strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few
there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13,14)

IMHO, clues include: personal habits of consumption over and above the basic human needs for safe food and shelter, clothes, transport, education for kids, healthcare, and something for a rainy day and some pleasant hobbies, plus a willingness to let kids work and do without to build character, and not bail them out eternally. A regular person can appreciate good stuff, but is not obsessed with having better than everybody else. Yankee frugality, and indoctrination since childhod to avoid vain dumbshow, innoculate somewhat against greed.

Being successful in business often has nothing to do with wanting to get rich, but rather with a desire to develop a technology, market a great product, bring employment to a stricken area, or build a personal empire, or just do something to make one's kids proud...Hands-on work breeds better character than analysis of another's business, and scheming how to squeeze maximum "value" from it...

But I merely speak from watching generations of relatives build businesses, pretty much uninterested in money except could they make payroll, and stay in the black. As plenty in this blog have said, money represents freedom, but you don't need that much of it. cf: Dickens famus quote on happiness and misery.