The Great Money Lie

By James Donahue

There has been a story making the rounds on the net about a research study at some unnamed and obscure university. The study finds that people can't enjoy money that they don't earn with their own hard labor.

That old saw has been sounding for years and the masses . . . those that work as slaves for the rich . . . seem to have bought it hook, line and sinker.

Back in my younger years I befriended a fellow named Mike Lucas, then involved in heavy litigation against his employer. Mike had been fired for his involvement in bringing a union into the shop where he worked. Mike, who still keeps in touch from his digs in California, has a wonderful brain. He understands more than most people how the system works. He won his lawsuit and retired at a relatively young age.

Lucas believed that the myth about the poor not enjoying "easy" money was a deception, passed down by the few wealthy people who run the system. He saw it as a way of helping to keep everybody in a deceived form of slavery. I believe he was quite right.

There is an ironic twist to this story that most people don't think about. When the poor acquire sudden wealth everything changes for them in extreme ways. If they don't take time to plan how they are going to deal with this change, and perhaps seek special counseling, they often run into big trouble.

Over the years I saw this happen when I met multi-million dollar lottery winners and then went back to visit them ten years later. It was not uncommon to find that their marriages failed, they were involved in litigation with former friends and relatives, and sometimes they were plunged into bankruptcy.

People with unexpected wealth become instant targets for con artists and quick witted fellows who are skilled at taking money away from those who are unschool in the art of hanging onto it. Primary targets are lottery winners, family inheritance recipients and the retired elderly.

The problem with our society is that we have allowed money to be our god. Money is literally the controlling power over the people. It is worshipped. When people lose it they sometimes become so despondent they commit suicide.

We train children through our public education system to prepare for jobs to earn money. We teach them the value of money. Parents give their children an allowance that "teaches" them the value of money. Everything is geared to implant a slave mentality in our children as they pass through their formative years. Public schools don't teach children to think of being industrial, social or political leaders, or to develop right brain abilities.

I knew I was destined to be a writer early in life. Yet my father, a chemical engineer who worked for a company that produced monosodium glutamate to poison the brains of millions, encouraged me to go to college and prepare for a career in science. He saw money as success. He warned me that a career in journalism would leave me a pauper.

I didn't buy the call of money then and I have never regretted my decision. I followed my calling and spent a lifetime enjoying (almost) every minute of my vocation. I am still writing and probably will continue doing so until my brain quits working and/or my fingers can no longer tickle the keyboard.

My point to all of this is that the lure of money is a lie. Those that have money are usually skilled at acquiring it from others, and also keeping it from the thieves that nibble at their doorframes. The rest of society is frantically groveling in the dust for some way to gain access to a wealth that, for them, is unobtainable. The rich will make sure of that.

Also, I believe my father was wrong. While wealth can make a man comfortable, it does not bring happiness or success. Even wealth that is hard-earned can't do this.

The thing that matters for everyone is love. Without love of one another, family, children, neighbors and the Mother Earth, we miss the true purpose of our existence. I don't see much of that being passed around these days.