i was just reading about madonna signing a $120,000,000.00 deal with live nation for her touring and album and merchandise rights.
i’m not criticizing madonna, not at all, but i sometimes wonder what people do with their excess money, and when do they have enough?
we live in a culture wherein there’s a prevailing ethos that you should always have more.
but why, in and of itself, is ‘more’ always better?
isn’t there possibly something to be said for having enough, and to actually be able to appreciate what you already have?
i live in new york city where hedge fund managers routinely make $50,000,000.00 a year and where people spend $20,000,000.00 on apartments and where almost everyone is desperately trying to get/make/have more.
and, simply, i wonder why?
i mean, what do you do with $50 million dollars that you can’t do with $40 million dollars?
and what do you do with $40 million dollars that you can’t do with $30 million dollars?
and so on.
i guess there are always new houses to buy and private planes to fly around in, but do any of these things really increase anyone’s actual happiness?
i know, i probably sound like a crusty hippie, but i’m actually just trying to empirically assess whether or not having more ever makes anyone happy?
i mean, sure, owning a nice house can be a good thing and can increase people’s happiness.
but does owning a $10 million house make you twice as happy as owning a $5 million house?
and then once you own your $10 million house, what then?
other houses around the world, i guess.
to me that just sounds like other headaches around the world, because the more you own the more you have to maintain and the more you have to worry about.
ok, maybe i’m rambling, but i really do wonder at the ‘more is better’ ethos.
i don’t even wonder about it from any sort of principled or philosophical position, rather from a practical one.
i just don’t believe that being worth $120 million makes someone happier than being worth $110 million.
i’m not opposed to having or making money. money can be great. it enables you to have a roof over your head and to not go hungry and to do nice things for people.
but when i see people desperately trying to have more and more and more i just wonder at what sort of desperation is fueling the drive for ‘more’, and whether or not people might actually be happier if they instead spent their time learning to scuba dive or playing baseball with their kids.
i’m not a crusty lefty(at least i hope i’m not), i just wonder at the prevailing, and usually unquestioned, ethos that ‘more’ is always better.
i actually think that the new yorkers who have ‘enough’ tend to be the happiest. at least they’re the ones i see in central park playing frisbee and eating sandwiches with their kids.
-moby
