Things Money Can't Buy!

In this bizarre world of the super rich where I live and work, more than once I've been asked about things rich people cannot buy. So I thought I'd give this topic a shot.

Of course we all know and dream about the amazing things money can buy - fun, luxury, travel, fancy cars, furs, diamonds, not to mention peace of mind and endless rest, right? But still there are some things in this crazy world that money can't touch or acquire. So from my point of view, here's what I've got:

Wisdom:
It was Aristophanes who said "Ignorance can be educated, but stupid lasts forever".  Which is to say, you can purchase the best education available at Harvard or Yale, but without wisdom to put all that knowledge together you can still wind up stupid as an ox in understanding the ways of the world.

Integrity:
The very definition of integrity is having the quality of being honest with strong moral principals and uprightness, right? But unfortunately too many rich people, having to claw their way to the top, have given up any sense of integrity altogether. Which is fine; nobody really cares how you got rich. But nobody forgets either. Try to remember that.

Respect:
Well, without integrity how could anyone hope to have respect? This is something earned - not purchased.

Class:
You can live in a trailer park and still be as classy as Eleanor Roosevelt or Audrey Hepburn, with an outward look toward others and compassion in your heart. Or you can be rich as all get out and still be entirely selfish and self centered. Class, like wisdom, is something a person is born with - you either have it or you don't. And good luck to anyone who's trying to purchase it with money.

Love:
Without question money can buy steady and constant companionship, perhaps even loyalty, as long as the money and paychecks keeps flowing. But love? That would be rare-to-impossible. Which is precisely why the rich are so reliant upon Prenuptial Agreements.

Immortality:
To extend their names beyond the grave, rich people are fond of giving endowments to hospitals and universities with their names prominently displayed on the new wing or addition. And to extend their own bodily lives, they of course have access to the finest medical care available. They have their compound pharmacists and supplements, and they have their favorite plastic surgeons in Switzerland to help reverse the ravages of age. But in the end? Guess what....

Happiness:
To a degree money can most definitely buy certain aspects of fun and pleasure, right? But true happiness is a special place in the soul - available to everyone whether we're rich or poor. Personally, it's not in my observation that rich people are blessed with any more or any less happiness than all the rest of us.

I hope this wasn't insanely sophomoric or tedious. I think we all agree it would be more fun to be rich than poor, right? But the truth is, just because they have a few more beans in their pockets than most of us, the rich are subject to the same human frailties as everyone else. And the old adage is so very true - money can't buy everything.

Thanks for stopping by this evening,

Andrew

Affluenza! Are you kidding me?

I've not wanted to get into this discussion, but there's been so many requests for an opinion that I thought I might as well jump in.

By way of background, a few months back four people died and others were injured in a drunken driving incident. The rich Texas teenager charged with the deed was sentenced to only ten years probation, plus a little time in rehab. Which, of course, created a stir around the country.

His attorneys argued he was the victim of "Affluenza and the product of wealthy, privileged parents who never set limits for the boy."  

Simply said, it was claimed the boy didn't have the ability to discern between right and wrong because he was so rich.

I don't even know where to begin on this nonsense. Maybe it's best to start by mentioning the term first originated in an anti-consumerism book called Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic which went on to describe the disease as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more."

Well okay, whatever. All I know is that in lesser circles the rest of us in this situation might be diagnosed as having sociopathic behaviors, or at the very least, anti-social personality disorders. And we'd be thrown directly into jail or a mental institution, right?

Having said that however, there's some small truth in the argument. Rich kids grow up in a bubble. They're raised by nannies, sent to private schools, aided by private tutors, and they have house staff to make their beds, do their laundry, and clean up after their mess. Plus the fact they live in extremely protected neighborhoods, often behind locked gates, in the ritzy part of town where only the rich run around and play.

These kids have no meaningful contact with the outside world. Not with the middle class, not the poor, certainly not the homeless, and seemingly develop a sense of superiority and entitlement in their world of endlessly getting what they want.

I see it all the time around here when rich people bring their little brats over to the house. And when I'm ordered around by these kids, perhaps told precisely how to prepare their cereal, I can't help but think here's another future sociopath on the way up. (That was meant to be sadly funny, btw.)

But when you add this sense of entitlement to normal teenage hormones and rebellion, there can be some real trouble in the works, sometimes with dangerous consequences. We see it almost daily in the news and tabloids about privileged kids or famous teenage stars devolving before our very eyes and constantly getting into some kind of trouble.

Well, that's about all I've got on the subject. In my mind it seems to me rich kids should be held to a much higher standard due to all their privilege in life - not let off the hook because they're rich. But that's just me, I guess.

Thanks for stopping by tonight.

Andrew