What About... Wealth

Charity is fine. If I had more wealth than I knew what to do with, I'd invest it, set aside some to fund my kids' college, have a nice house, nice car, nice clothes and all that.

But I wouldn't have more than I could take care of. For example, do you really want to live in a house so big that by the time you finish cleaning and dusting the entire thing you need to start all over again? Cars and motorcycles and campers wasting away, undriven for months or even years, in your several garages? I guess I fail to see how letting pounds of food each week expire because you buy multitudes more than your family could possibly eat, or letting machines and furniture and furnishings and so on fall into ruin by way of neglect, is any better than stuffing the money you bought it all with under your mattress.

I want less to worry about. Not more to worry about. And you're right, money is a tool, so whether or not you'll have more or less to worry about entirely depends on how you use the tool called money.

If you don't keep some of the money, you're being irresponsible. Always have a rainy day fund instead of rely on Big Brother. That's the kind of value and principle I'd rather follow, personally.

Redistribution of wealth is fine when a gun isn't being put to my head.

I become obsessed with money when I have little. I dream of expensive holidays, big TV screens, top of the range gym/spa/saunas, elite massages, alternative therapies. Im not suited to poverty but then Im not suited to wealth either.

I hate having more money than I know what to do with. My limit is a couple of hundred. After that I don't know what to do, and I want rid of it. It feels like a grotesque burden to me.

I understand your position, but I'm not sure I'm convinced. Why should there be no money?

Well, it's true enough that money is just something that everybody chooses to believe has value, because theoretically (as you said) it's a representation for labor.

It seems to me that if money isn't backed by some sort of raw standard (gold) that can provide a more raw value in terms of supply and demand, something is wrong.

I'm still not entirely sure I understand, but I have a better idea now so thanks for taking the time to explain. By "what we're allowed to do with money we can't do with cars or guns", what do you mean? And money *can* operate heedless of law or restraint, but so can just about anything else, so I don't think I get your point.

What I find interesting is that money seems to be more representative of time now than actual goods produced. You're right that often times value really feels like an ambiguous, amorphous, arbitrary thing.

There's many jobs out there where you get paid to make shit so that other people can make shit for even more shit that isn't necessary to begin with. In other words, a chain of 3 (or even more) unnecessary jobs.

There was a movie not too long ago called "In Time", where people buy time so that they can literally continue to be alive. Pretty dystopian. Fun concept; never saw the film but have heard it's meh. A shame when cool ideas get squandered.

I'm not sure my views on money are translatable to text. I view money as a tool. I am extremely frugal. I don't buy into the commercial slant that is perpetuated by today's society.

I don't have the latest, greatest of everything but I have what I need. I grew up quite poor for a first world person. My mother left an abusive relationship. We literally went out a window, with nothing but a few clothes and what we had on our back.

Then I spent a number of years as a single mother, I learned the difference between a need and a want. Real wealth is non-monetary. It is the valued relationships I have with others, it is my health that I am working hard to get back, it is the efforts I make to help others and what I can share in terms of all that I am.

There are many things that allow one to make negative decisions without being held responsible for it. And also like with money, only sometimes there's no accountability. Not all the time. I choose to take responsibility for the decisions I make with my money, for example. I don't wait for somebody to exert force on me and hold me accountable.

I appreciate you sharing your views with me, listening to mine, and giving me something interesting to think about.

Merry Christmas.

And when they finally remove all of the portraits of slave owners from the cotton and textile parchments....ill dance m'self a motherfuckin' jig.
Now if youll excuse me im off to tear down a war statue or something like that, because it doesnt rule the restrictive paradigm of my life or wallet.......

I love you brother, thanks for posting this thought provoking level of awesome.