Last month in Europe, an Austrian man found €7,000 in an envelope by the side of a road. But instead of keeping it for himself, he reported the lost money to police and all the cash was later returned to its original owner. It’s these kinds of stories that give me hope for humanity. This guy should run for government. I think he would really make an honest politician. I’m not sure what I would do if this stroke of luck happened to me. Perhaps keep a portion for myself and donate the rest to charity? It’s difficult to know until the situation arises.
image from theprovince.com
Maybe the richer people become the more greedy and dishonest they get. Poor people normally don’t talk about making money or financial planning, but the upper middle class tends to think about their personal finances quite a bit more, and the super rich often spends the most time on dodgy funds, private banking, legal tax avoidance, and looking for new opportunities to expand their businesses, often despite questionable ethics. I have witnessed kind and giving people who once valued the simpler things in life to have now turned into workaholics, even after they’ve become successful and can already retire very comfortably. Perhaps money is like an addictive drug, the more you have the more you want. I certainly fit the bill myself, when I was a child I didn’t have any money and didn’t concern myself with it so I would have given back any money I found as well, because that’s what I was taught to do. However, now that I understand the value of 7,000 Euros and what it can buy I find myself dealing with a moral dilemma. I now understand the meaning behind the saying “money is the root of all evil.” Maybe the world would be a more generous and less greedy place if everyone was poorer. Probably not, but I wonder…
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By the way, this blog got a slight redesign. Sorry about the redundant email, broken links, and lack of posts this week. There are still some minor tweaks I have to work out still but it’s mostly done so things are back to normal now and I can post regularly again.
