Sunday, August 7, 2005

Money (Revisited)....

More at the micro level of the self. The reader can refer to an earlier post for the author's views on the same at the macro level.

Does possession of money necessarily translate towards a paradigm shift where in a luxury becomes a necessity. Is it a case of "sour grapes" for the "lesser fortunate" souls who do not have money. Is man (for that matter, an woman) ever contented with the money he/she has. Is it wrong to be a materialist. Is it worth spending vulgarly on those "necessities" when a definite change can be brought about in an another's life. Who are we to help others - are we breeding parasites?

Opinions on these confounding questions are more than welcome.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

For many, success is defined by materialistic things. I do not completely disagree with this and I firmly believe that a comfortable life with a stable financial situation is very much an ingredient for happiness. However, the problem starts when you stop controlling your money and your money starts to control you. That marks the onset of decadence.
Money becomes the most important thing in one's life and everything else comes secondary.
The one problem I see here is that it is very difficult to put an upper limit and say "So much money is enough for me."
Regarding helping others, I believe that it is important to help others financially, if the cause is genuine and the people are important
For eg : If you were well off, would'nt you fund a sibling's higher education atleast partially ?
For the others, as they say "Give a man bread and you've fed him for a day...teach him to fish and you've fed him for life"

Sorry for the really long comment..but ...

Rangakrishnan Srinivasan said...

Shalini: I don't see as to why you need to apologise for this wonderful comment.

All that I can say, are that these questions definitely make me think; and my answers seem to vary each time I sit down to think. At times, I really surprise myself with my own answers.

I have to come to realise this, maybe the hard way. There are no right or wrong answers. As long as YOU, as a person, can stand by your answers, any paradigm should be fine.

I am happy that this post made you think too. Proof: this long comment. :)

Anonymous said...

Ranga : I agree with you. As the Gita says "there's no such thing as right or wrong" . All things are relative. As you say, as long as one can stand by one's opinions, it is fine !

Rangakrishnan Srinivasan said...

Shalini: so you read the Gita too, good, good, good.. :)))

hope this inspires me :)