The trouble with money

I'm not one for pithy phrases, but sometimes they stick. This one for instance:

When you do something for the money, all you have is the money.

Last month, Warren Olney did a show focusing on today's wealthy class and how different it is from the wealthy class of just a few decades ago, when you made a good widget and built a small empire around it. I know two men who did just that. One started manufacturing paper tubes, the other packaging products. They worked hard producing superior items. They employed good-sized staffs. They succeeded and reaped the financial reward. Everything about these men was solid, including their money.

Today's wealthy class are anything but solid. Most make nothing other than money. They have ten- or one-hundred fold more than what was considered old school wealth. And if you listen to Olney's show, you'll learn that they lose it very easily and that taxing them is hardly a reliable income source.

I don't deny anyone a career in the financial industry, but at some point money becomes obscene. Venture capitalists make one thing: money. And judging by Romney's squirming over tax returns, I'll bet he's made an awful lot of it.



I have no idea what will become of Romney, but avarice is a deadly sin for a reason.

Writing does not pay much, but it is my craft. I strive to make it the best it can be. Sometimes my writing shines and sometimes it doesn't. When I write on this blog I don't get paid a dime, but when I get it right and produce something that lifts or energizes or enlightens you, it does the same for me.

And something of value is born

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Money

A dollar bill lies crumpled to your right, a bible rests righteously to your left. Erase belief from the scene and one becomes a slip of paper and the other a book, but which garners more faith? Lay one upon the altar of the Golden Arches and delivered unto you shall be a paltry burger. Whether or not the Virgin Mary shall be depicted by the sesame seeds of its bun, however, is anybody's guess.

Money equalizes. Money defines.

People control money. Money controls people.

Describe the differences between a one dollar bill and a one hundred dollar bill. Do not use the word worth. Do not use the word value. Do not use the word buy. You may use the word zero.

Money is fiction.

Money is indifferent, yet there is bitter money, kind money and honest money. Money reads the palm of he who holds it.

(shhh--here's a secret: Clench money too tightly and poison will flow between you and it.)

Luck and money are kissing cousins. Everyone wants as much of both as they can get even though either can turn bad on a dime.

One man stands before a vending machine with empty pockets and lips parched. Another just as thirsty stands waist deep in a roomful of quarters and no vending machine.

What is the value of a handful of coins?

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