Earn Nicely, spend wisely and you will live happily.
When you work on something that only has the capacity to make you 5 dollars, it does not matter how much harder you work β the most you will make is 5 dollars.
American society places tremendous importance upon egocentric behavior. Americans are encouraged to set ourselves apart from the group. Whereas in some societies it is an aberration to go against the whole, Americans celebrate the individual over the group. Public schools teach American grade school children that they are the captains of their destiny. American schools and society inculcate schoolchildren to measure their level of success in terms of individual accomplishments. A winner versus loser mentality prevails in American culture. Winners are the recipients of lifeβs economic awards. We are taught that possessing financial wherewithal will assist us attain exalted social status. Social status in turn allows select people to wield the power of influence. The silent audience consists of the economically deprived, the societal castaways whom we are taught to shun for lacking the temperament to succeed. A strong sense of self not only helps a person survive, but American society keeps score of a personβs economic victories and defeats. Americans measure the intrinsic value of our lives and recognize other peopleβs status principally in terms of each personβs relative economic resources.
Possessions Live in peace and be free. When possessions own your heart, You are enslaved to money and to corporations. Your time is owned by the moneylenders And they will not let you spend it freely. They will tell you what to buy, but not What it will truly cost you. You will be held ransom. What is your heart worth? What about your time? What holds your heart, holds your attention. What holds your attention, holds your time. What holds your time, holds your life. And if it's possessions that holds these things, It will demand it all.
It is not good to hoard money and it is equally unsanitary to hoard knowledge; the more you hoard the less you think and the lesser you know. - On Greed and Knowledge