Income and go

I have a theory. There are different philosophies about making money. Yeah, major intellectual moment huh?

Seriously though, By talking with people, reading history and learning even a little about economics, I had this thought.

There are "types" of income earners.

There are those who only seek to "make a living" then there are those who are into "profiteering".

I think that the majority of people, due to spiritual, religious, social and other values, are happy with "making a living" They don't need to be "rich" or have an abundance of money to be happy. They just want to live decently, feed, clothe and shelter the family. Educate the kids reasonably well.

They don't want to be destitute or in abject poverty, but they don't feel the need to have more than what they really need.

Then there are those who aren't satisfied with "making a living". They are "profiteers. They live and die in the pursuit of ever more money. They are the reason corporations and "corporate thinking" exist. They want to get the most money out of everything and everyone around them and they don't care what anyone else thinks or does (you see that exhibited mostly in the corporate structure of removing liability from the individual.)

No, I don't think the profiteers are the majority of the population. I think there are more and more people who are looking at that way of thinking than say, 25 years ago, but still, not the majority.

The problem is, the minority that is among the "profiteers" is not only in pursuit of money, they are in pursuit of "power" as well. They want not only the means to purchase, they want to have the ability to make anything a commodity to be bought or sold. This is one of the reasons you see so many profiteers involved in politics.

Many people try to create drama around the interaction of the two types. The create ideas of "class warfare" "haves vs have nots", etc..

The truth of it is, the "have nots" are mostly people who don't want much. The problem is, when you think like a profiteer, life is about accumulation. They don't care if there is a limited supply of money or goods or whatever it is, they just want to own as much of it as they can.

If they get more than their "fair share' as some would view those products and resources, they have no concern. It all comes back to they have accumulated it.

Of course, this leads to hoarding and in a society made of many people, hoarding is not commonly viewed as a good thing. Especially where those products and resources are limited as it is.

Hence, class warfare, have's vs have not's and so on.

To be a profiteer, as I mentioned before, is all about accumulation of what the person sees as valuable. I mentioned hoarding above as an extreme result of this.

In a community, we see this hoarding in people who do not accumulate money but in other things they come to find valuable, if only to them. Be it books, newspapers, secondhand products, etc...

Hoarding is seen as a mental disorder. I am suggesting that it is only the extreme example of a general disorder in people who are driven by profiteering. Mass accumulation of anything, like wealth, "power", property, etc...

The problem is, we are a wishy washy society. We want to be too flexible in our definition of things like that. If the profiteer in question is accumulating wealth, we don't say they have a disorder, we say they are "driven to succeed" or they are "highly motivated".

BullPucky I say.

It is what it is, whether we feel "comfortable" about it or not. it's funny how we value the notion of "telling it the way it is" and even exemplify it in our language and prose, " A rose by any other name is just as sweet." That means, call it what you want, like it or not, a rose, by definition, is a rose.

A "disorder" is a disorder. A flaw in the thinking or mental capacity. Call it what you will, it is by definition, a flaw.

In the U.S, we tolerate this flaw though as it is too closely concealed by "freedom". We have the right to accumulate possessions of our own to provide for our own and our family's needs and wants. no one can tell us how much is "too much'. Therin lies our problem.

We hesitate to begin down the slippery slope to saying how much accumulation of wealth and property and power is "too much" because if we start controlling that, where will the next line be drawn?

I say only this, I have found happiness not in the accumulation of things, but in the sharing of them. Take a look at your life, are you a profiteer or are you making a living.

Life is not something that can be stored on a shelf. It is meant to be shared, not squandered or collected.

Y'all come back now, Y'hear?