Money and Wealth

Is it wrong to pursue money? Is it wrong to seek wealth? I am surprised sometimes by the different types of people who have money and wealth. Some of the wealthiest individuals in the world – Bill Gates, Warren Buffet – earned their wealth. While there is a long list of people who did not earn wealth, some got it in a legitimate manner like those who inherited wealth. Still there are those got wealth from illegal and wrong manners – thieves, drug deals, dictators, war lords…

I guess it all goes to show that money and wealth are independent of right or wrong. Money is not an ethical issue, but there are often a lot of ethical issues associated with wealth.

Ayn Rand, the author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, who is also credited with her own philosophy – Objectivism, defined money as a merely a tool.

“Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.” ~Ayn Rand

Too many are willing to commit a large number of wrongs and even atrocities in the pursuit of money. Too many people have lost their lives and legitimate and hard-earned property at the hand of someone who was willing to cast aside right and ethics.

Deserving It

For me, I’d rather deserve wealth. I am not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination although I am better off than a large number of people. When I do make money, I prefer to earn it by my hard and smart work. I appreciate it more.

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Take a quick walk through the streets of Rome and you will note two “not good” things.

1. The city center of Rome has a not so pleasant smell to it; at least it did when I was there at the end of April last year.
2. There are a lot of homeless and beggars.

I am not going to write about Rome, but I will say this: it’s a great city to visit and everyone should see it at least once.

Rome

I don’t know why the city center of Rome smells. It may be due to large populations of people living there for thousands of years, to include times when sewage systems were not very advanced. It may also be attributed to a large number of homeless people. That one took me a bit by surprised at first. A couple hours after I arrived, I was walking and went from the city center across the Tiber River; that’s when it hit me. Where else is it a “better” place to be homeless then in a year-round warm climate and the home of the world’s largest and wealthiest church.

Vatican City

The Vatican City, with its stone walls, marble steps, gold chandeliers, its own diplomatic corps, and focus on tithing and charity, is a force of problems, not solutions. Give your money to the church and then the church will give your money to the poor (after they build large monuments of marble and gold or course).

Giving

Bill Clinton has even written a new book about giving. The 256-page book outlines his new focus on philanthropy and “how each of us can change the world.” I don’t think so.

There are some things that can have a definite impact on poverty, hunger, and “third world” status, but I don’t thing philanthropy, in itself, will change that.

“Anything that is given has less value than the same thing when it is earned.” ~Jonathan Frye

This is my three step process:

1. Get rid of governments that are not “of the people.”

There is a lot of debate as to whether democracy can work in the Middle East and I must admit that if it can then it will take time. One of the major obstacles to entrepreneurship, success business, and individual wealth creation is governments – corrupt governments, totalitarian governments, and overly bureaucratic governments.

Anyone is welcome to try and disagree with me, but America is the best example of a government that works. We are not perfect by a long shot, but we are better because we are a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” (Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address). There is no ruling class or royal family, but ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

2. Teach people to work.

Allowing people to get something for nothing stifles them learning to get that thing for themselves. People need to learn to work. People need to learn to earn what they need and, then, what they want. Even if you start at a lowly fast-food job, if you start then you can finish better. There are too many people not willing to work. I suggest you follow the 7 Steps of How to Make More Money.

There are also people not able to work for physical ailments or other limitations. Each obstacle can be overcome. If you can walk, you may still be able to think. Acknowledge what you cannot do and then find out what you can do to earn your own paycheck.

3. Teach people how to work better.

This is the process of education. Education is the single greatest differentiator between success and misery. Education is the single greatest differentiator between wealth and poverty. Education is the single greatest differentiator between a successful economy and a third world economy. If there is one area, where giving money can make the largest impact, it is in education.

The worst case scenario

I had a friend tell me about his time in a poor Middle Eastern country. He was with the US Air Force and was given a brief by the military to ignore people begging in the streets. He was told to do that even if it was a child who was maimed and deathly skinny. The reason: parents would purposely maim and starve their children at young ages in order to make them look more pitiful, so they would get more from begging.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! It makes me want to scream! I don’t understand how a parent could do that to a child, but I will not do anything that would encourage that ever. I will not do anything that would make a parent think that their child could get more from begging than from learning how to work. I don’t want philanthropy to cause more harm than it does good. So I want to follow the timeless advice:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Education and work ethics, not philanthropy, can change the world.

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