Money
How much do you need?
My personal answer is "just enough".
I/my family want to have: a vehicle, a safe home/apartment with sanitary living conditions, an adequate supply of food and water, enough money to cover health care expenses, and some money for entertainment and comfort items. Finally, enough money to contribute to charity. I think that having these things constitutes an extremely good life.
I do not want to own a boat(s). Nor another home(s). Nor a cottage on the lake. Nor golf courses.
At some point, and that point varies for each person, there are diminishing returns when it comes to the acquisition of more and more money.
You might be able to get more money, and therefore more things. But at what cost? If you already are living what by most standards is a good life, why do you want to forever work 30 hours of overtime a week to get more money? And perhaps more importantly, why would you want to hurt your reputation by not paying your contractors what is rightfully owed to them, thereby forever branding yourself as an insufferable prick...just so you can have more money for yourself, which in turn makes you desire even more money? Why would you want to step on others in order to satisfy a need that can never be satisfied?
Some people actually reduce the quality of their life...just to get more money. To me, that is counter intuitive. Isn't the end goal to have a good and peaceful life, rather than have a lot of money?
People that concentrate on material wealth have an itch that can never be scratched. Some have everything they could ever want, and certainly everything they could ever need. But they want more and more and more money. Because they are trying to scratch that itch. They are searching for that satisfaction. That satisfaction of having more money. If your goal is to always have more of something, you will never obtain that goal. And if you are willing to do anything, to anyone in order to get more money, you will be poor in the things that actually satisfy. And you will die that way. You may perhaps even realize on your death bed how badly you messed up, and desire redemption. But by then, it is far too late to redeem your life. And your children will live their lives with enormous wealth, while the rest of the world outside of their little cocoon knows what assholes they are, and what assholes their parents were, and this will continue throughout each generation until someone in the family decides to change it. So you see, you are not passing anything of value along to your children.
So when people talk about how lucky someone is to be "rich", I always seek to learn exactly what that person is rich in. Money? Material things? And, How did they get there? Did they hurt/scam others to obtain their wealth? Do they give back to people less "fortunate"? Because if you do not use your monetary wealth to truly make the world a better place, you may just realize on your death bed that your life was wasted, and history will judge you unkindly for eternity. Maybe you are not even monetarily rich. Maybe you are just scrambling to keep up those appearances. Maybe you spend your entire life living in a false world. Again, this is another desire that will never be satisfied.
I'm talking to you, Trump family. I'm talking to you too, Betsy DeVos. Because you have a sickness. Most people fully recognize you as being the assholes that you are, but you don't see it yourself. In your own sick way, you should enjoy it now. Because I have a feeling that the reality of a wasted life is going to slap you hard in your time of dying.
= new reply since forum marked as read
