dailyreckoning.com.au / By Bill Bonner / February 11th, 2013
‘As long as I live under the capitalistic system, I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp. This, sir, is my resignation.’
One of the rarely cited advantages of having money is that you’re less beholden to others who have it too.
The more you have, at least in theory, the more you can ignore the other fellow with it, and go about your business. Nor need you drink the same cocktail or rush to the same mall so you can outfit yourself in the same duds.
In short, with a little cash of your own…you can do what you want.
And the fellow who said ‘money can’t buy happiness’, had apparently not read the New York Times:
‘Broadly speaking, the data now indicate that as people get richer, they report getting happier too. Though it’s not quite that simple. Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Michigan who helps advise the U.S. government on happiness statistics, told me that poor people in poor countries are not unhappy simply because they don’t have wads of cash. They are more likely to have fewer choices, more children who die in childbirth and other grave problems. And while wealthier nations are generally happier, there is no evidence, Wolfers says, that an artist would be happier if she became a hedge-fund trader.’ |
But we’re talking capital, not cashflow. The trouble with cashflow is that it doesn’t spring ab ovo, from nowhere. It comes to your hands from the greasy mitts of someone else. If they don’t keep the cash flowing, you may not have any. Unless you’re a government employee or a tenured professor, a job is just a job. You serve at the pleasure of others. If you give them displeasure, they can cut off your income.
