How much money and wealth do people really need?

[kentuck]

Many people always seem to want more...

But what would they do with it if they had it? Is it all just a game for them? They compete with their class to see how much more they can accumulate thru the stock market or maybe in overseas currencies?

This seems to be much more important to them than trying to make this a better world for everyone? It is desire. It is greed. It is thievery. It is human nature.

However, government cannot control human nature but government can control his appetite...

[cherokeeprogressive]

1. I'll tell ya after I win the Powerball drawing. n/t

[kentuck]

2. So what you are saying??

More than you have right now?

[cherokeeprogressive]

4. Actually I'm fairly content with what I have...

A Cessna 310 would pretty much top it off.

How cool would it be though to be able to use hundreds of millions of dollars to help other people. Say the Powerball is worth a $375 million lump sum; I could easily see myself keeping only a few million of it.

[DesertFlower]

7. i would also give it to charity.

i'd only keep enough to make sure i could afford in-home care if something happened to me.

[OneGrassRoot]

3. I pose this question frequently, and am pummeled for it.

We may not be able to easily decide what is ENOUGH, but the majority of us could agree upon what is TOO MUCH.

When a nation has millions of people who are literally without adequate food and shelter, and without healthcare, and millions more on the verge of the same -- while others have private planes, multiple luxury homes, and a net worth of billions, those who fall into the latter category have TOO MUCH.

It's inhumane. It's not a sustainable society.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Very little, of course, but it is a game...

and you could just as well ask how many golf courses we need, or football games, or pairs of shoes...

The thing is that we are a competitive species and at a certain point we either "must" have things we really don't need and we often must have more of them than someone else. Or everyone else.

Back in the old days of the robber barons, Vanderbilt built Motor Parkway simply because he was pissed off at the Long Island Rail Road. Rockefeller didn't give a shit about his net wealth, but was always in the game just to win something, anything, every day. It was a game to these guys-- every bit as much as it is a game for a foursome of dentists at the links. It's just that the money guys play for higher stakes and they don't care that the rest of us can be the real losers.

On our level, the old canard of "keeping up with the Joneses" is the same thing-- we compete at the neighborhood level for who had the best lawn, newest car, or whatever.

[DesertFlower]

6. i'm fine with what i have.

money can't buy health or happiness.

[kentuck]

8. The Bad and the Good

[HiPointDem]

9. you really don't understand? power. the power to shape the world the way you want & make

others do what you want. or kill them.

[kentuck]

10. I know that power does not surrender voluntarily..

....and they will do just about anything to hold on to it.