You know what? I don't have an answer. I managed to scrape together $20k and a $50k loan from family to get a $300k loan from a bank to build a business and now we're providing the livelihood of seven people directly. Our biller went from a staff of one to a staff of five. I've got three different support groups meeting in there every week. My biggest worry is that I'm not providing them a good enough livelihood. I want to be able to provide benefits. I want to be able to provide retirement. There's two women that I know of whose ability to raise children out of poverty depends on my ability to market my business. When Ethereum was fuckin' riding high? That was great. I could see a future in which I was providing jobs for six or seven watchmakers I know that are currently hand-to-mouth. I could see jobs for three or four machinist friends. This is the thing about capital - it enables labor, so that labor can support capital. I went to Hawaii and envisioned a future in which I invested in converting the agriculture there from conglomerate-owned low-yield crops to native-owned chocolate. It ain't even a very high point. I've been able to fund my retirement one year out of the past three and the money I see is pretty much a lever to help others. It's safe to say there's three quarters of a million dollars worth of student loan debt on my payroll. Let's say we wipe all that away. Let's say I stand up a watch manufactory. Will there ever be a point where I go "you know what? I can't find anything useful to do with more money"? I can't think of one. Some wag on Twitter pointed out that Michael Bloomberg has already spent more on advertising a losing presidential bid than the US Government spends on NOAA in a year. Think of that. A vanity project costs more than protecting the entire fucking country from tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards and flooding. Do I think I could come up with something useful to do with a hundred million dollars? Yer damn skippy I could. I allowed myself to buy a $25k car only after I spent $2k on someone's kidneys. Could I see myself in a $125k car? I mean, sure, I'd love one but there's so much more I could do with that money. And I have a sneaking suspicion that's where Republicanism comes from.At a certain point, being a billionaire for example, comes with all sorts of personal responsibility (noblesse oblige)
You know what? I don't have an answer
You don’t have an answer? Whoa. As you are the most prolific Hubski contributor, (am I right?) just seeing that statement, by it’s rarity, makes it pretty damn valuable. You provide quite a wealth of information and thoughtful responses to all Hubskiers, don’t forget. Thanks.
"People see money three ways: as blood, to nourish; as semen, to create; and as shit, to be thrown away." - Julia Philips, You'll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again Ms. Philips claimed that was an old Yiddish saying. I'm neither old nor Yiddish so what do I know. She pissed off a lot of people with that book, which was the point. Thing is though? Take it at face value. Suppose money is something that's supposed to enrich your life. Will you reach a point where your life can be enriched no further? Certainly. I've done work for billionaires. I've seen what kind of music studio you can build when money is no object. Front yards full of Chihuly. Waterfalls under glass. In the words of Bill Gates, no matter how much money you have, a burger is still a burger. So sure, there's a limit there. Suppose money is something that's supposed to challenge you. How big a party can you throw? Goldman Sachs is currently settling with the DOJ for their involvement in a scam that basically used the Malaysian Sovereign Wealth Fund to find the answer to that question. Could Jho Low have spent more money? Probably. I mean, they spent it all. What do you do when you've determined how much it costs to get Paris Hilton to go on a date with you? You determine how much it costs to get Paris Hilton and all her friends on your boat. Then you shoot Wolf of Wall Street. that there is a function that asymptotically approaches infinity. Ahh - but what if money is the lever you move the universe with? I got in a big fight with a buddy once over art vs. commerce. He loves goofy little indie movies. I pointed out that goofy little indie movies kill the careers of their creators unless they have bottomless phat stax to burn. He turned to me outraged and said "If you could make ONE MOVIE - just ONE - what movie would you make?" "The movie that gets me another movie," I said. He stormed away. Sure 'nuff, those movies are gone - what you have are "passion pieces" paid for by someone's parents and the Marvel Comic Universe. Someone walks up to you. Says "here's a hundred trillion dollars. We think it's enough to eliminate war, hunger or inequality but not all three. What do you want to do?" I wanna turn it into three hundred trillion dollars and we still haven't eradicated malaria.