What Money Can Do to a Man

In my professional capacity (harumph...harumph...) I have worked closely for many years with people of substantial means. Some absolutely rolling in the stuff. And I recall the day clearly when I confirmed with absolute certainty that money cannot buy happiness. It was only about 15 years ago when it hit me that one particular executive for whom the woild was his erster was perpetually miserable. Here was a guy who ran out one day to buy a brand new Jeep on a whim because after all, in his words, "money is not a factor." Yet, he had a permanent scowl and hardly ever a positive word to say. At the same time, it occurred to me that even at the outset of my working days, when I was bringing home a lot less, I was no less happy than I was then, or now for that matter. When it comes to happiness, to quote Mr. Bacigallupe of the Abbott and Costello show, "Money's-a-gotta nothing for do for dis ting." Obviously there are going to be some very sad times in everybody's life and none of us can control all of the circumstances we encounter and sometimes things will turn sour and so will we. And I'm not saying that having some dough to pay for a full belly and a roof over your head isn't something to aspire to. But when it comes to attitudes, I believe we can control our default setting. Whether we set the dial on "OK" or "This sucks" is up to each of us -- whether we have a lot of money or not so much. And it just seems to me that money tends to push the dial over to the "sucks" setting. I know, that sucks, but whatayagonna do.

And another thing! Recently, I've been witness to some individuals receiving some very large sums of money to do good things they, arguably, should be doing anyway. We're talking multiples of what most people make in a year. And the reaction isn't to jump up and down with glee and gratitude; it's to complain bitterly that it's taking too long to get the money. And this from people who are already pretty well off. (Prehtty...prehtty well off.) And I've seen this coming not just from jerks, but from people who I thought were pretty nice. Is that what money does? Is it really the root of all evil? They talk about the curse of the lottery winners. Maybe there's something to that. Hey, not for nuthin', but you gotta wonder.