-laugh- Actually I know a couple of guys who like to just mop floors... as long as they're paid well.
But I know what you mean. We do aspire to the best we can be, including economically. Everybody wants to make the best life for themselves they can, and if you can succeed in something that will make you rich, and it's not wrong, there's nothing wrong with that at all. Only with people getting swelled heads, and people helping them get that way by treating other people like dirt.
People give rich people (and the old 'aristos') a bad name as a rule, but there have been plenty of people who were rich, famous and powerful, who were really, truly, genuinely decent human beings, who cared about their fellow men, and did not think they were better than anyone else. Heck, one king (was it St. Louis?) used to feed the poor at his own table, and prefer to eat their scraps than be served something special. Others built hospitals for the poor, and some even nursed the sick with their own hands.
Money and even power, and humility and sincere charity for others are definitely not mutually exclusive, even if they are fairly rare. It's just a choice the rich or powerful person has to make for themselves. But money and power/authority, in and of themselves, are definitely not evil things. Not till men choose to use them to do evil.
Not many people stand up to the temptation to do otherwise, though, unfortunately.
-laugh- Actually I know a couple of guys who like to just mop floors... as long as they're paid well.
But I know what you mean. We do aspire to the best we can be, including economically. Everybody wants to make the best life for themselves they can, and if you can succeed in something that will make you rich, and it's not wrong, there's nothing wrong with that at all. Only with people getting swelled heads, and people helping them get that way by treating other people like dirt.
People give rich people (and the old 'aristos') a bad name as a rule, but there have been plenty of people who were rich, famous and powerful, who were really, truly, genuinely decent human beings, who cared about their fellow men, and did not think they were better than anyone else. Heck, one king (was it St. Louis?) used to feed the poor at his own table, and prefer to eat their scraps than be served something special. Others built hospitals for the poor, and some even nursed the sick with their own hands.
Money and even power, and humility and sincere charity for others are definitely not mutually exclusive, even if they are fairly rare. It's just a choice the rich or powerful person has to make for themselves. But money and power/authority, in and of themselves, are definitely not evil things. Not till men choose to use them to do evil.
Not many people stand up to the temptation to do otherwise, though, unfortunately.