A new philosophy of money for the modern age (The Funny Side)


Posted on 6th Feb 2015 04:12 pm by mohit kumar

The kids were shocked when I told them that if they had been born in the olden days, they would have to hunt for their food. "But we don't even know where burgers live," said one.

"They live in caves," I explained. "In America. And they have claws."

Modern parents must teach children that everything has a cost in money or effort. To do this, I share cash-related stories from the newspaper. Recent example: A sneaky jeweller who wanted to hide his sales from the taxman sold six million euros worth of jewellery for cash. The buyers took the jewellery and left him with a suitcase full of Monopoly money.

The kids couldn't see the problem. A suitcase full of Monopoly money had to be way better than boring bits of jewellery. The guy would win every Monopoly game he played for the rest of his life. Good point.

I bought that particular board game after seeing an article on Investopedia on life lessons you could learn from Monopoly, such as "keep cash on hand" and "be patient". Like most articles on the Internet, it was garbage, beginning to end.

Monopoly teaches you five things. 1) Be a vicious, merciless landlord. 2) If you get the card which says "Bank error in your favour", forget ethics, keep the money. 3) Only pay income tax if forced to. 4) Business people end up in jail sometimes, no big deal. 5) The ultimate purpose of life is to bankrupt everyone else and end up with all the cash.

Who created this game? Li Ka-shing? Rupert Murdoch? Donald Trump?

Nobody on earth would accept these as good life lessons, except perhaps for everyone in Asia, America, Europe, Russia, Africa, Australia, Latin America and the like.

But looking for educational finance items in the paper left me more baffled than the kids. Consider these two. 1) A New York dealer in modern art pleaded guilty to selling worthless items for millions of dollars. That's illegal now? I thought that was the normal business model for modern art. 2) A businessman set up a fake university in Hong Kong which would give you a no-studying honorary degree if you just gave them money. Wait. That's what real universities do too.

Readers who regularly contribute to this column pointed out that most individuals have their own deeply-held philosophies of money. This is true, and it's not difficult to work them out.

My boss: "You cannot buy respect. Not with your salary, anyway." My boss's wife: "Money doesn't matter. As long as you're rich." My daughters: "Money can't buy happiness, so that's why we went shopping and spent it all." My son: "Money can't buy love but it can buy the important stuff, video games, black t-shirts and burgers." My wife: "Money is made of paper. That means, technically, it grows on trees."

The good news is that all this thinking about the philosophy of cash eventually left me with a practical plan for the future. Everyone agrees that love is worth more than money, right? At the end of this month, I am going to give my landlord a hug.

(Nury Vittachi is an Asia-based frequent traveller. Send comments and ideas via his Facebook page)

0 Like 0 Dislike
Previous news Next news
Other news

Former TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi, who joined BJP, resigned from Rajya Sabha alleging suffocation

Former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi joined BJP on Saturday. Describing the joining of BJP as t

Cheap 5G phone of Realme will be launched soon, know what will be the price of Realme 7 5G and who will compete

Smartphone companies are now bringing phones equipped with 5G technology. Meanwhile, Realme is al

So Far 59 Thousand Deaths: Australia Reports Chinese Meat Market's Hand Behind Infection; 1,480 Killed In 24 Hours In America

Washington. So far, 59 thousand 141 people have died from coronavirus worldwide. The number of in

GDP of India: S&P estimates India's GDP growth rate to be 7.3% in the current financial year, know details

S&P Global Ratings on Monday projected India's GDP growth rate at 7.3% for the year 2022-23.

AAP's National Council meeting to decide fate of Bhushan, Yadav

New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will be holding its National Council meeti

Kamal Haasan: Kamal Haasan got UAE's golden visa, the actor had reached Dubai to promote 'Vikram'

South star Kamal Haasan is in the news these days for his film 'Vikram'. The film, which was rele

West Bengal: Election Commission asked for 800 companies of central forces for panchayat elections, 315 were sent

The deployment of central forces started in West Bengal after the order of the Supreme Court. The

America is teasing, Russia also flares up on Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, China's support

Russia's reaction has also come to the fore amid tensions between the US and China over Taiwan. R

9 suspected cases surfaced at IIT Roorkee, including a foreign student

New Delhi, Agencies. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Roorkee) Roorkee has placed a foreigner

Amla, du Plessis help Proteas post 411/4

Canberra, March 3 (IANS) Top order batsmen Hashim Amla (1

Sign up to write
Sign up now if you have flare of writing..
Login   |   Register
Follow Us
Indyaspeak @ Facebook Indyaspeak @ Twitter Indyaspeak @ Pinterest RSS



Play Free Quiz and Win Cash