The old saying is actually: “A penny for your thoughts.” But no one has pennies anymore; also, no one wants a penny, unless they are a collector of coinage, so we will just have to update it. “A dollar for your thoughts.” Might work. You might get some information out of a person for a dollar.
Of course, you get my thoughts in your inbox every Tuesday or Thursday, depending on when I can gather them. Some might say my thoughts are a little too forthcoming, and to them I say: “Hit delete!” I’ll never know. We’ll still be friends.
I have been thinking a lot about the dollar, and about how having enough of them or not having enough affects every single aspect of our being. Our health, our mental agility, our physical appearance, our dietary habits are all determined by the amount of cash in our pockets. Having money matters.
Why?
It is odd that our species has relegated our value to what a person earns or owns. You don’t see other members of the animal kingdom ringing up one another’s charges at a cash register. Animals cooperate in packs or schools or pods or murders in pursuit of sustenance, because there is safety in numbers and mostly when they are related. The typical pack or pride or what have you is made up of extended family.
We cooperate based upon an exchange of currency. Money is the universal language that all humans speak outside of the most remote indigenous tribes. Money talks. The whole concept is as odd as it can be, but if money is what we need to survive, then I want some. I want enough. I don’t particularly want more than that. Enough will do just fine.
There are too many among us who want too much. Who crave more riches than they could ever expend and who are ruthless in pursuit of it. This has always been so.
“The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor…”
-Grover Cleveland, 1888
He went on to win the presidency after a second run and would then sign legislation that made Labor Day a national holiday. His avocation for the working classes was as revered by Democrats as it was rebuked by the Republicans of the day.
Greed took a brief holiday courtesy of Mr. C and then came roaring back in the 1920’s. One thinks of the “robber barons” of that era who had finally to be taxed into behaving like citizens instead of Czars.
Today’s billionaires club is threatening our very existence with its excessive desires, its rapacious appetites. Most of them are truly bad actors. They are bankrupting our planet in pursuit of more and more wealth, and they know it. They are busy building safe houses and survival bunkers in New Zealand in anticipation of a blow-out from mother nature. She has made it clear that she can only take so much abuse from oil and burn pits and pesticides and coal ash and all the energies and resources that provide these richest of the rich with the dollars they worship. They know this but they do not care. I guess they figure they can buy their way out of the apocalypse, or, if need be, relocate. They are busy racing one another into space on the lookout for new digs.
If you have ever played the game of Monopoly all the way to the very end you will find that it’s a game that cannot truly be won. When you bankrupt your fellow players, they can no longer afford to pay rent on your holdings. Without tenants those motels and houses will languish empty, and you will find yourself traveling the board alone with no way to incur future earnings. Sometimes winning is losing.
Money is weird.
Someone once asked the current Mrs. D. J. Trump if she married Donald for his money. She confirmed that it was a factor and then asked: “Would he have married me if I wasn’t beautiful?” I’m gonna guess not, Melania. Because it sure wasn’t for your wit or charm or taste in decor. Those White House Christmas decorations still defy explanation. So maybe money CAN buy you love; or at least a lovely, if hard-breasted, ice-cold armpiece.
These days, having money in Russia can get you killed. That rarified air the wealthy breathe is not so pleasant when you are hurtling through it, having been tossed out a window. The Russian rich are meeting terrible fates on a regular basis these days. Putin is purging anyone who could possibly challenge his stranglehold on power. He sees the monied class as a threat and those big winners are losing it all.
Money is malevolent.
I have several friends who have held high positions in government office. When asked what would make a real difference in our political landscape, what could truly be transformative, to a man and a woman, they will tell you that we must get the money out of our campaign system. We are one of the few remaining Western societies that has not established publicly financed elections. We have enacted some half-hearted reforms only to see them undone in our court systems in the name of “freedom.”
“Corporations are people, my friend.”
Mitt Romney was roundly and rightly mocked for this remark at a campaign stop in Iowa years ago, and I am sure he regretted saying it in his “outside” voice, but the truth is he believes it. Big business is pouring relentless amounts of cash into the campaign coffers of political aspirants. The sad reality is that the only way to beat a bad guy awash with cash is by adequately funding a good guy. Round and round we go.
Ironically, the only way we will ever get the money out is if we put more money in.
Money troubles can destroy marriages, wreak havoc on families and rob children of their health and well-being. People who live in poor neighborhoods don’t have access to fresh foods or decent schools. There are generally no parks to play in or any chance to splash about in a pool. Money trouble is hell on folks in the middle too—witness the rash of suicides among males in their 50’s during the last financial crash. It is a terrible fact that having or not having money defines our worth in society. If we let it.
I travel with dollars. I like to have at least 100.00 in singles on me whenever I go on location. This comes in very handy for tipping folks who help me out in hotels. Maid service should be tipped four dollars per day. If you are only having bi-weekly service that amount still applies, so 12.00 every three days. Dollars are stashed everywhere, in my wallet my car, and often my bra. I keep them on hand to thank delivery people and nail technicians because cash is king in their world. I often give them out to homeless folks and people who come up short at the cash register. I make it a point in my life to be prepared to give and to give as much as I can.
Like it or not, we all know the value of a dollar. We all need money. One of our greatest fears is that of not having enough of it to live out our lives in comfort and safety.
We would do well to remodel ourselves after our fellow creatures and learn to take only what we need. To want less and give more. To idolize kindness and community. To pray to the temple of a healthy planet and citizenry. To worship freedom of thought in addition to our Gods. To celebrate generosity and make models of the givers among us instead of the powerful and glamorous.
It is very common for extremely wealthy people to be fearful to the point of phobia about germs. This makes perfect sense, of course, because no amount of riches can protect them from sickness, and though it can ease their suffering, it cannot prevent them from one day meeting their end. No one can buy their way out of that. Turns out they will have embraced all that ambition…all of that greed and trespass for naught.
In the end and at the end it was and is only money.
On we go…
After reading and enjoying (once again) your column I couldn’t help but cough up the $50 to enjoy even more of your writing. Thanks for your wit and wisdom and wanting to share it all with perfect strangers.
A great read, Beth. I love your writing as much as I loved sharing a stage with you 33 years ago. Thanks.