It is likely pretty obvious to those who read my work regularly that a large part of my guiding force and inspiration is my family, my wife and daughter. We face our challenges as individuals and a collective but, we have survived so far. It takes a lot of work for us to hold things together for various reasons but having purpose makes things much easier to bear.
If you notice, I tend to call my posts here work fairly often because that is how I see it. It isn't the reward aspect of it, it is the purpose part. Some are here for fun alone, or the money but I have other goals too. Yes, I like the value I earn and enjoy staking it into the platform but, I see money as a tool, one that has rarely been in my toolbox.
@whatsup wrote a post mentioning those that speak about not caring about money and how often it is the people who want it the most, don't have access or are unable to work out a way to get enough. I agree, it ous an avoidance or suppression of desire, not a lack of want. Much like the celibate priests abstaining yet, continually talk about sex as something evil.
Money is not evil, it is a tool and therefore, it is how you use it that adds the potential context of good or bad. Like most, I would like to earn more than I do so as to get out of debt, provide a little comfort and padding for my family, but what then?
I think that the more money I have access to, the more work I would end up doing. Money is a resource that buys time, and I am not one to sit around on a beach for long, there is too much to do. It goes back to my family of course, and my future potential family.
If I want to provide an environment where my daughter can be her best, it isn't likely one where the world she lives in is drowning in our own filth. It goes beyond just her though, it has to. Living in a climate controlled bubble is unlikely to bring out her best either.
I have often thought what I would do if wealthy and I think it would be to fund and directly support ideas that help humanity be better at various levels. Get cleantech start-ups off the ground, hire researchers and scientists to help develop practical measures and find new ways to cut down on pollution. Money is a tool and what we buy with it shapes our world. This includes all the junk we buy.
Pay level and job tasks relatively equal, I wonder if there would be a difference in perceived life satisfaction between someone who works in a cleantech company or one who works in the oil industry? Is a job a job or does the goal of our work matter too.
I had a Math teacher at school who was very intelligent and a nice guy but, a pretty terrible teacher. Turns out that previously he was engineering weapons of mass destruction and couldn't live with it. They were going to be designed and made anyway but, he preferred to have a sense of atonement by teaching high school kids. He felt more meaning and purpose also, like he was helping, not harming.
I wonder if he had had children before taking a job, would he have taken the one creating weapons that could or would be used to kill? Experience and perspective change buying decisions. Some things that might be done for the money would never pay enough, other things can be done although they pay very little. If there was no money in banking, who would be a banker by choice?
Yep, those that often talk about money or any other topic commonly likely are lacking that thing in their life or, fear losing it. I wonder if everything was going smoothly in my family, would I write about them as often? Maybe not, perhaps the hardship is a constant reminder to be grateful for what we do have, rather than what we are missing, difficulty lifts rather than oppresses us.
It would be nice to move on to some new challenges rather than health issues though. Health is wealth but illness drains much more than a wallet. I hope that as she grows, she can find purpose and meaning outside of trying to be healthy, and part of that relies on the world we create for her.
Thoughts before thoughts.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
(posted from phone)
Money is such a big part of life that it's always a worthy subject for contemplation!
I always see money as a means to engage with life. It lifts limitations and makes many things SO much easier.
When I hear people saying that money doesn't matter or isn't important, I think that they probably haven't ever been truly poor. Life can be very difficult when you are hungry and can't provide the bare necessities like food, shelter, transportation and health care.
Yet as you say, regardless of money we still have to deal with ourselves...being rich won't really fix what's inside of us although it can help us to help ourselves. And, wanting money is not evil. In my opinion money isn't the problem, greed and misusing power are!
Or maybe so poor that they have to tell a story that it is less meaningful than it may be.
I don't think money or power is corruptive, but the tendency to fear loss is the problem. People don't want to lose anything, including power so, the natural tendency is to protect what one thinks they own.
4000 years of history would argue against that supposition..lol
Are you assuming that you can account for everyone who ever had money or power in the last 4000 years?
I'm not assuming.
I have a wide knowledge of history from Sumerian times onwards, and the dynamic is very easy to see.
Hierarchies cause centralization of power.
When the hierarchy becomes a dominant structure (a bureaucratic one) it usurps the original meritocratic hierarchy one - then corruption of power follows.
(it seems to repeat itself in a continuous cycle...as the meritocratic get corrupted by the sociopath manipulators)..
Makes a lot of sense and never thought about it that way! However, you often hear horror stories like the donations to Haiti which only 5-10% of donations actually ever made it to their ultimate intention and it turns the other way!
Posted using Partiko iOS
Indeed. It is time to blockchain their asses. Direct support into wallets, zero fees, direct tradeable goods and services.... sound familiar ;)
Agreed! Definitely a great use case for increased transparency and accountability! Sorry for messing up the thread! Still getting used to the mobile app!
Posted using Partiko iOS
I have never used Partiko, is it good?
Compare to the mobile browser I was using; multiple times better! Great interface and very fast. Love the notifications and upvote interface. Struggle with posting here though which I have always preferred to do with my computer at home. Overall, a great mobile companion for Steem! Worth at least a try!
Posted using Partiko iOS
Money gives us choices which would be great for all of us. We don't need riches, but being comfortable would be nice for once. I hope you are feeling better and tests go well this week.
Wouldn't it just.
I often try to put a lot of what you say in practice regarding the ability to help society as I often donate to charitable organizations. However, I still don’t feel fulfilled for doing so, instead I feel the need to donate time and effort to see the outcome rather than asking someone else to do so. That is a way it has helped given me perspective of what we truly have...
Posted using Partiko iOS
It is interesting though in some respects. Although it doesn't quite work this way:
let's say you earn 100 dollars an hour but to hire a worker it costs 10 dollars an hour. That means if you donate an hour of your time, it will cost 100 dollars but be 1/10th as effective. It also means that the 10 dollars salary doesn't go to the 10 volunteers, which is a potential other factor to consider considering the types of people who might be volunteering. Of course there are various emotional things at play in there too.
There is a guy named William MacAskill who does the effective altruism thing. If I remember correctly he gives 90% of his wealth away to various charities. He works a well paying job. Some people have a very good skill of making money, so it might be in the best interest of their charitable endeavours to spend their time working hard for money, rather than donating their time to charity. It would mean that they would have to come to terms with the problem you describe though to feel that there is meaning.
Hi @tarazkp!
Your post was upvoted by @steem-ua, new Steem dApp, using UserAuthority for algorithmic post curation!
Your UA account score is currently 6.258 which ranks you at #223 across all Steem accounts.
Your rank has improved 1 places in the last three days (old rank 224).
In our last Algorithmic Curation Round, consisting of 235 contributions, your post is ranked at #18.
Evaluation of your UA score:
Feel free to join our @steem-ua Discord server