You know, there's that story, about a guy who liberated a genie from the bottle. The genie told him he would grant him a wish for having freed him, actually he offered him one of these three things : love, wealth, or wisdom. The man chose wisdom, and in one instant he could see and comprehend all the mysteries, secrets, and mechanisms of the whole universe. And he started crying : "shit, i should have chosen the money".

That sounds good, but sounds something like "the poor have an excuse to rob."

Have seen many poor people whose sense of honor wouldn't allow them to be crooked in any way; great people.

They don't, and never will, rule an empire, but their character places them far above most everything that is around them.

Easier, yes, make it right, no. These people testify to that, in their everyday life.

I didn't say that, I simply said that if you're put in a position where your child needs formula and you have no money, there's no honorable choice left. Asking for charity doesn't always work and the poor sometimes have little access to information about assistance or the means to quickly get there or get said assistance.

If my child was crying with hunger pangs I wouldn't call it "honor" to not walk out of a Safeway store with a 7 dollar can of formula without paying.

I'm not saying it will come to that or somehow that's the "honorable" choice, I'm simply saying I see no honorable choices in many situations. To expect honor from people without doing everything we can to make sure everyone has their basic needs covered is a hypocritical demand at best, I'm human therefor I am sometimes a hypocrite, however I find hypocrisy far more repugnant than some guy who lives in shit hole, has almost no access to medical care, and can barely make ends meet, who claimed an extra unemployment check that he wasn't technically entitled to.

Obviously this is all personal opinion.

Have seen many who just made do, but it is possible they did because of no other options.

They could have "monked" me, come to think of it, but didn't.

Some people just shine from within, and can't be figured. The face of a God most don't believe in, perhaps?

You forgot Exterminate

You don't get it.

The title is what "truly" matters, not what is important.

And the wise men you referenced? They may be wise but that's not who I was talking about.

I'm talking about PEOPLE. Not celebrity "holier than thou's". Have you never met a wise old man? Spoken with someone who has lived?

Money is important, always will be. Always should be. But the world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe. (That's a quote from a really good movie btw.)

What truly matters in life, is that you don't live with an emptiness. Money cannot fill the void that we all have in us. I think there are many components that go into living a successful happy life, but money is no more than a necessity, and at the same time, a luxury. But is it what matters in life?

When I'm on my death bed, the last thing I want on my mind is "I did good, I made a lot of money."
Even though I imagine I will have by that time, I don't see that as my goal in life or as what ever mattered to me. It's something that comes and goes, and the smart man will attain it.

But feeling successful, happy, complete, needed, loved, cannot be attained through the goal of wanting big bucks. Many people that win the lottery destroy themselves because of it. Everything money can buy is a facade. Fake friends, fake love, and temporary happiness.

You people seem to think that the only other ideal is to have no money at all. That's garbage. I invest my money consistently. Financial wisdom is incredibly important to a healthy, happy lifestyle. But money truly mattering in life? If that is what life means to you, I feel for your soul.

This is where I think you completely miss the point: money buys me free time to spend with my friends and loved ones. Money ensures my loved ones receive adequate medical care, education, care for any special needs, etc. Money ensures I have a flexible job so I can take care of my daughter after school. Money put healthier food in my fridge and allows us to eat well if time is short and we eat out. Money means I can afford extra curricular activities for her. It paid for my university and I'm much more equipped for working and teaching my daughter. Money removes stress and worry from my life.

It does much more than buy you "fake friends" and useless trinkets.

Money is an enabler, nothing more, it doesn't cause any of these things to happen, but it does allow me to take advantage of the opportunities. You cannot buy tickets to the museum if you cannot afford your food for the coming week and your car needs new tires.

Everybody has their breaking point.

In the end, we are not infallible machines of reason, but animals with reasoning strapped on top. This is why we often reason so poorly.

You give everybody food, a roof over their head, security, entertainment, a mate, something to do and some power (maybe in the forms of grass-root politics) and only the fringe will misbehave.

You give everybody food, a roof over their head and security, but nothing more (no entertainment, no mate, no power, no occupation) and only exceptional people won't misbehave at all.

You give people security, but nothing else and pretty much everybody will misbehave to various degrees (exceptional people might resort to only steal what they need when the right opportunity presents itself, others might resort to outright banditry).

You put everyone in a "everybody for himself" framework and only the most ardent pacifists will let themselves be marginalized and slaughtered. Most other people will revert to a dog-pack tribal structure like you still see in some parts of the world (like Africa).

Humans have a tendency to be decent (we are social animals), but this isn't an overriding directive. This is something that we have the potential to develop in ourselves when the opportunity presents itself.

We are blessed to live in a society where scientific and social advancement affords us the opportunity to be completely decent, but at the present time, we are not fully capitalizing (poor choice of word perhaps) on this opportunity.

Very much agree that we are blessed, liked your progression of contrasts, but still doesn't diminish the goodness of people that just seemed to be there. That is a sparkle I've never been able to figure out myself, but was there (unless that which I perceived was not so.)

There is the cream of the cream, but is it wise to tailor our entire society around the top 0.01%?

Isn't it as bad as tailoring society with assumption that everybody will behave like the bottom 0.01%?

It doesn't work.

This is the type of mindset that we need to slash, because enables ultra-conservative types in their quest to annihilate organized community.

You see conservative types tackling how much student tuition should be subsidized by the state (in their opinion, not at all) and approach the problem like this:

First of all, they'll find a poster child (that rare gem that embodies everything they believe in).

They'll find Tobby, who was abandoned by his crackhead parents, went through the foster care system, then go straight As though high school, worked 40 hours a week while taking 8 classes and graduated with honors.

He then proceeds to find two jobs right away (maybe his career one and then a side job in some restaurant to boost his income) and pays off his massive debt in 3 years.

Problem is, the other 99.99% are not like Tobby and if you put the other 99.99% in Tobby's situation, they will never graduate university.

Knowing this, the hardcore conservative will argue that the other 99.99% should be like Tobby, that Tobby is like tough people were in the golden days and if they aren't, they are worthless and should be thrown to the wolves.

Look who's talking about missing points. You've completely overlooked everything I said and just picked out one small thing that you can shallowly banter against.

Money is a necessity, I said that 49 times, but any wise man can get money without making it what "matters" in life.

Here we go again, you woke back up.

Will address your points later; having fun now :-)

In the meanwhile, cry me another tune; have fun.

Take your time, I'm not having as much fun (the node.js book I'm reading is not well structured I'm finding, did not make the best pick), but need to get back to my reading anyways.

Just a quick suggestion, but you might enjoy life more if you weren't looking to smell shit in every corner you encountered.

Talk to you later, and enjoy.

Procreation. And that, unequivocably, is the objective truth.