Without God By Dostojeyski

Posted: 4/14/15

A quote from Brothers Karamazov written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821 - 1881), published in 1880:

“"That I am sorry to lose God? … And Rakitin does dislike God. Ough! doesn't he dislike Him! That's the sore point with all of them. But they conceal it. They tell lies. They pretend. 'Will you preach this in your reviews?' I asked him. 'Oh, well, if I did it openly, they won't let it through, 'he said. He laughed. 'But what will become of men then?' I asked him, 'without God and immortal life? All things are lawful then, they can do what they like?' 'Didn't you know?' he said laughing, 'a clever man can do what he likes,' he said. 'A clever man knows his way about”

(emphasis added; source)

I should be giving credits here, but I forgot from where I got the inspiration for this blog post. Mea culpa!

Things Money Can't Buy Fallacy

Posted: 2/20/2015

Trigger

Recently someone posted a picture showing following list and claimed these virtues or human qualities could not be bought with money:

Character

Class

Common Sense

Integrity

Love

Manner

Morals

Patience

Respect

Trust

At first you may agree and it appears to be true, however ...

A Common Fallacy

The spectacular creation and evolution of money by humans has been and still is an act of love and trust. Would humans not trust and love each other to some degree, one of the greatest achievements of civilization, i.e.  money, would not have survived.

In a monetary economy, basically every business transaction is based on trust in money. E.g. every employee trusts that he or she will be compensated for his or her work. Even criminals love and trust money and therefore other humans, because ultimately someone else than criminals will have to accept the money in exchange.

Unless you are a criminal, you will not really make money without having some of the above listed qualities. Thus, to claim you can not buy it does not make much sense.

At least some of the above qualities can be learnt. Money certainly would help to pay for this kind of education.

An affluent person can choose to retire at some point in life and devote his efforts and time towards the above qualities for the rest of his or her life. Money is essential to achieve this.