NYTimes
Seventy-six years ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt took to the inaugural dais and reminded a nation that its recent troubles “concern, thank God, only material things.” In the midst of the Depression, he urged Americans to remember that “happiness lies not in the mere possession of money” and to recognize “the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success.”
“The only thing we have to fear,” he claimed, “is fear itself.”
As it turned out, Americans had a great deal more to fear than that, and their innocent belief that money buys happiness was entirely correct. Psychologists and economists now know that although the very rich are no happier than the merely rich, for the other 99 percent of us, happiness is greatly enhanced by a few quaint assets, like shelter, sustenance and security. Those who think the material is immaterial have probably never stood in a breadline. [...]Our national gloom is real enough, but it isn’t a matter of insufficient funds. It’s a matter of insufficient certainty. Americans have been perfectly happy with far less wealth than most of us have now, and we could quickly become those Americans again — if only we knew we had to.
Some twenty plus years ago I was treated to the following by a man who was born after the Depression. In his day, money was called dough because it had to be worked with to get goods. In the sixties, money became bread. Bread is a finished product that stands on it's own and requires no effort. Entitlement has cornered America into today's position. No where does it say you are entitled to a house, a college education, a car, etc. You have to earn these things. Greed keeps America in today's position.
ReplyDeleteGreat exposition!
ReplyDeleteThe scientist's effusive credit given to random evolution for our ability to synthesize happiness is a tragic waste of the capacity for true hakoras Hatov to HKBH.