I don't know about you, but I find it tiresome and tedious and grindingly irritating to listen to, or read from, well to do people -- people who are no longer in want, and who may have not been in want for a good, blessed stretch of years, and whose future is pretty much safe and secure -- pontificating about how Money can't buy you this, or that, or the other thing.
Actually, money can buy you a lot. Without money, life sucks. Period. Or, let's just put it this way: not having money is a nasty, twisted bitch, and bless your stars and thank your God if you have enough of it to not worry yourself to constant distraction by your lack of it. I certainly am thankful.
# 1. Health
Anyone who tells you otherwise is deluded. Especially when talking about this country, the United States of America. Solid money can buy you solid Healthcare, and lots and lots of money can buy you the best Healthcare in the history of humanity. Not having money, or having little of it, means that you have to pay for just the care that you can afford. Many people have to decide between their medicine and feeding their children. And when I say many, I mean a non-negligible multitude of human beings.
# 2. Love
In addition to good Healthcare, money can give you the peace of mind to be yourself and to love yourself. If you are not able to provide for your family to the extent that you want; if you find yourself having to say "no" to your child when you wish so badly that you could say "yes," you can't possibly help but begin to lose your sense of self worth. And the less you love yourself, the less you are disposed to love anyone else.
# 3. Happiness
Money can also buy you happiness if you know how to use it: you can spend it on good causes and to ensure that your family is not in want. You can help the poor and the needy. You can help a friend in distress. You can help complete strangers. And you can buy a nice house in a nice, safe neighborhood and enjoy watching your kids grow happy and healthy.
# 4. Integrity
Again: you don't need money to have a healthy sense of self respect -- but want of money can make it real hard.
# 5. Respect
I once gave a $20 tip to a cab driver because I felt sorry for him. I've never been treated with greater respect than I was by that man: he jumped out of the cab, delicately took my bag out of the trunk and gently handed it to me, bowing repeatedly, while saying, "Thank you Sir, thank you so much...." And this was a gruff, hardened looking man in his forties or fifties who, beyond a couple of bored grunts, barely spoke to me during the whole ride.
# 6. Peace of Mind
If there is one thing that Money can buy you for sure, it is peace of mind. Peace of mind that you won't lose your house because you can't make your mortgage. Peace of mind that you won't go bankrupt if you or someone in your family were to fall sick. Peace of mind that your children will be able to have the education they need and fully deserve to compete and to live up to their full potential and dreams.
# 7. Ethics
Money can't by itself make you a good person, but it can keep you from having to make hard or impossible choices. It can keep you from feeling compelled to game a rigged system that is patently not fair and that is in no hurry to move toward being more just and more humane. Those in want who rob and steal, or who have endured a brutalizing childhood, bereft of the exquisite care that we provide our children, will often make the wrong choices because they grew up fighting for their place in the world. Expecting them, as adults, to suddenly play by "the rules" of a morally bankrupt, hypocritical, callously uncaring system that didn't care for them when they were innocent children, is asking for too much.
# 8. Education
Really -- money can't buy you an education? Aside from the hefty price tag any decent college commands, money can also enable you to buy books, and the ability to watch lots of movies, and the opportunity to attend classical music concerts, and the luxury to travel. In fact, the more money you have, the more educated you can become. And oh yeah, if you have money, you don't have to take an extra job or two to make ends meet. You can use that time to learn something new.
# 9. Intelligence
As for intelligence: it may not be able to buy you more than whatever wits God has granted you, but it can definitely enable you to make the most of the intelligence you do possess.
# 10. Spiritual Enlightenment
And as for Spiritual Enlightenment: there is no way you can become spiritually enlightened if you are in constant want or need. Unless you shed all of your desires and tame all of your impulses into near total submission and become a monk or a guru, chances are that you will have no time, and you will be in no mood, for spiritual enlightenment. The heavy breath of worry and the dark shadow of fear will keep you sober and fully grounded and worrying about whether or not you will be able to pay the bills this coming month.
Money, like love, beauty, intelligence, and friendship, can't do it alone -- but it sure makes things easier if you are careful enough with it and wise enough to use it for making a better life for yourself and for those who seek your help.
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If you enjoyed this post, check out these two as well:
- Lessons From Four Friends and a Cat
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- My Very Best Advice to Young Professionals
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Ahmed Bouzid is Senior Director of Business Solutions at Genesys and author of the book: Don't Make Me Tap! A Common Sense Approach to Voice Usability, available in hard copy and in e-book format at Amazon. He is reachable via twitter and Linkedin
