“But now,” she continued, “the first
remedies of reasoning are reaching you more deeply, and I think I should now
use those that are somewhat stronger.
“If the gifts of Fortune fade not nor
pass quickly away, even so, what is there in them that could ever be truly
yours, or that would not lose its value when examined or thought upon? Are riches valuable for their own nature, or
on account of your and other men's natures? Which is the more valuable, the
gold itself, or the power of the stored up money?
“Surely wealth shines more brightly
when spent than when put away in masses. Avarice ever brings hatred, while
generous spending brings honor. But that cannot remain with one person that is
handed over to another. Therefore money becomes valuable to its possessor when,
by being scattered, it is transferred to others, and ceases to be possessed.
“And if all that is heaped together
among mankind comes to one man, it makes the others all poor. A voice indeed
fills equally the ears of all that hear. But your riches cannot pass to others
without being lessened, and when they pass, they make poor those whom they
leave. How limited then and poor are those riches, that most men may not have,
and that can only come to one by making others poor!”. . .
—from
Book 2, Prose 5
I had a
very brief moment, thankfully quite brief, where I actually worked in the world
of finance. I earned more in that one year than I had earned for the five years
before, or for the five years following. If money and status had been my thing,
I would have played the game, sucked up to the boss, and perhaps even made
myself someone of importance.
Needless
to say, I didn’t do that. An old friend got me the job, and I am still grateful
for his efforts. I just couldn’t sit around, day by day, realizing that what I
was doing involved making rich people even richer, and making poor people even
poorer.
I had
always assumed that the stock market was a sort of science. It isn’t. It’s a
psychological game. It’s the art of manipulation, and it’s a manipulation
driven by greed. And it sadly runs the country we live in.
Those
who actually work for a living are slaves to those who do no work at all. Give
a man a million dollars, and he may be bright enough to turn it into ten
million dollars overnight. Have a man earn ten dollars, what you pay him for an
hour of his paltry life, and he ends up in debt. How bright he is makes no
difference.
What is
money, after all? Simply having it alone means nothing. It all depends upon the
power we use it for. Some men may spend it for good, and some may spend it for
evil, but the value only comes from the actual spending.
And when
I spend, I lose what I have. So I seek to acquire again, only to spend again.
The more I spend, the more I want, and I become caught in a destructive and
never-ending cycle of wanting and consuming.
Lady
Philosophy isn’t giving us sound financial advice. She is giving us moral
advice, fully aware that a man is measured by his character, not by his
portfolio. People skilled in the art of
wealth laugh at this, but that is only because they consider wealth as an end. She
is reminding us that even wealth itself is a passing thing, never static,
always in motion. It comes, and it goes, like all things provided by Fortune,
and the very coming and going are the very source of its seductive appeal.
Now ask
yourself, with all honesty, whether something so transitory, something so based
upon taking from others to gain for oneself, so desirable yet so fleeting, can
ever be a measure of life. Once you have it, it has to go away to make it
worthwhile. Once it is gone, you will need more to make it go away again. All
at the expense of someone else, who loses what you have gained.
For over
twenty years, I have spent a good part of my life trying to help drug addicts.
We call them criminals, scum, and the worst of the worst. Replace their drug of
choice with the love of money. It’s much the same thing. I will sell my soul to
get it, I will use it until it is all gone, and then I will struggle to find
another way to get more.
Instead
of grasping for what is an illusion, it might help me to pursue what is
real. I scramble to take money from
others, when I should be trying to make more of myself.
Written in 8/2015
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