Living in the North Georgia mountain area, in rural America, it's pretty challenging to shop without either going to Walmart occasionally or going online, usually to Amazon. That got me thinking today about the greed and avarice that probably didn't create but certainly now support these 2 institutions. I believe the mythology that Mr. Walton was a kindly gent who wanted to give people a place to shop with prices they could afford. All good. I also used to think Jeff Bezos was pretty amazing, having put together an online supercenter so anyone anywhere could get whatever they wanted. When we first moved to this area in 1979-80, we had to travel 20 miles into North Carolina to buy parmesan cheese! Every few weeks we went to Atlanta and shopped at the giant health food stores there because we just couldn't buy what we wanted here.
Now we sit in our living rooms and order whatever we want. But at what price? I haven't worked for Mr. Bezos so I don't know first hand, nor have I worked at Walmart, although I have friends who have. In both cases, a good idea has seriously gone awry. We know how poorly paid workers are for both companies, and we hear how stressful their conditions are. The tragedy is how easily this could have been a completely different story, if only the owners had not had this gaping addiction to money, more money than anyone could ever use in a lifetime, or 100 lifetimes!
When is it enough?
In our culture, we have nothing but praise and adulation for money addicts. They are the stars of all advertising, stepping off yachts and private jets wearing thousands of dollars of clothes and sunglasses. Money is glamour, and so we fail to acknowledge it as a sickness when someone becomes a glutton for it.
Two downsides of money addiction are that the people who have it are selling their souls for it, and the people who work for them suffer. This is not to say that all rich and successful people are money addicts, far from it. There are examples of very wealthy people who treat their employees well, pay well and provide healthcare and time off. They manage to stay balanced, which is a choice we all have to make, every day. It might be a lot more challenging for the very rich. That's something I don't yet know about.
Now we sit in our living rooms and order whatever we want. But at what price? I haven't worked for Mr. Bezos so I don't know first hand, nor have I worked at Walmart, although I have friends who have. In both cases, a good idea has seriously gone awry. We know how poorly paid workers are for both companies, and we hear how stressful their conditions are. The tragedy is how easily this could have been a completely different story, if only the owners had not had this gaping addiction to money, more money than anyone could ever use in a lifetime, or 100 lifetimes!
When is it enough?
In our culture, we have nothing but praise and adulation for money addicts. They are the stars of all advertising, stepping off yachts and private jets wearing thousands of dollars of clothes and sunglasses. Money is glamour, and so we fail to acknowledge it as a sickness when someone becomes a glutton for it.
Two downsides of money addiction are that the people who have it are selling their souls for it, and the people who work for them suffer. This is not to say that all rich and successful people are money addicts, far from it. There are examples of very wealthy people who treat their employees well, pay well and provide healthcare and time off. They manage to stay balanced, which is a choice we all have to make, every day. It might be a lot more challenging for the very rich. That's something I don't yet know about.
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