The Love of Money
68
The New York Times recently ran a series of short opinion pieces entitled What is a Master's Degree Worth?
The short essays were the latest installment in a feature the Times calls Room for Debate, a forum where various academic administrators and business types weigh in with their personal cost/benefit analyses and then natter on about the rapidly depreciating value of any kind of college education.
They all lament how terrible it all is, yeah ain't it awful, and finally conclude soberly that heck, the average person might as well not go to college at all because in most cases, it won't make you any money.
Hey I have a great idea!
From now on, let's not do anything unless it makes us money!
Let's base all of our practical and ethical decisions on whether or not the outcome is likely to be financially profitable for us personally. (Screw everybody else, right?) Then, having narrowed our decisions to only those that will yield the highest dollar amounts for our own bank accounts, let us ruthlessly cull activities we once enjoyed with an eye toward maximizing productivity and profitability until, in the end, simply breathing creates more profit for us.
Oh, wait. We already did that, didn't we?
Gee, that strategy worked pretty well, all things considered... wouldn't you say? I mean sure, the economy worldwide is in the toilet and may never fully recover, and daily life for most people is sinking to a level not seen since Dickens' time, but look at all the wealth that was created at the top! Look at all the piles and piles of gargantuan gi-normous money!
What could be better than that!?!
Clearly, making money the be-all and end-all of our entire existence was a great idea. He who dies with most toys wins.
Let's do it some more!
Or, Maybe Not
As a person who has loitered around colleges and libraries and avoided 'the real world' for as long as humanly possible so that I could study art and literature and discuss ideas with people who loved those things too, I'm totally familiar with the fact that none of these activities will make me rich.
In fact, I don't know any student of the humanities or the arts who seriously expects money in this lifetime. Yet the 'experts' keep telling us we won't be making any, as if we missed that, as if this is some kind of news flash or ever has been.
Twenty-five years ago, when I got my bachelor's degree, I wrote and published an essay about why a liberal arts education is worth it even though it doesn't lead to money, and things haven't changed much since then except that tuition has gone up about tenfold.
As a society, we're getting back to the situation of my early childhood--that is, a society in which only the already-wealthy can afford college at all--so it seems more than a bit redundant for The New York Times to be rehashing how cost-effective a liberal arts degree is not.
Oh duh. Rilly?
A master's in Art History won't get you a job at Morgan Stanley? Seriously, it won't make you a captain of industry or a master of the universe? Darn.
Well, guess what? Your liberal arts master's degree won't get you a job at Lehman Brothers or at Bear Stearns either, but when you and your art history books don't have a job between you, you will still have an inner life and a creative spark and a soul, while the Lehman Brothers/Bear Stearns MBA-dude will still be just another greedy asshole who now can't make the payments on his BMW without his mother or his girlfriend.
I ask you, which is more valuable?
Soul + art history book collection, or Asshole + BMW repo problems?
The important thing here (as far as indoctrination and propaganda goes) is to convince 'the little people' that there is no hope. Money is all that matters and you people who don't have any, you better get some and by the way, college won't help you with that.
So don't go away sore, just go away. Just leave art and science and history and music to those of us who have the means and the leisure to pursue and enjoy those 'extra' bits in life. You people, you, um, working people, just go off and clean something, will you please?
Skitter away now and make some money (for us), and clean some things (for us), and get out of our universities, will you?
Go do what you are here to do.
Serve. (Us.)
The Root of All Evil
Most people are familiar with the phrase, "Money is the root of all evil."
Most people do not know that the actual Biblical quote (From Timothy 6:10) is the slightly different phrase, "The love of money is the root of all evil."
The actual passage reads like this:
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Indeed. Today, even a child can see what this passage means.
If you don't believe it yourself, just try to get your cable company to actually provide cable service, or your bank to actually look after your savings (instead of gouging you with fees), or your local big box store to actually find what they have in stock or care.
Try to get your cell phone company to provide you with a reliable working phone or ConAgra to provide you with food that has actual food in it or your electric company to provide you with a bill that reflects your actual electrical usage or your hospital to provide you with anything that is actually good for your health. We now have stores that don't sell things, service companies that avoid service, and a government that doesn't govern, and why?
For the love of money.
The U.S. has come to a point where extracting profit is all that matters. Creating value takes too much time and effort and is way too 'abstract'; money is what matters to us and what we consider to be real.
The corporation, the dominant institution of the 20th and 21st centuries, is the perfect machine for ruthlessly extracting profit from people and things. Setting a corporation in motion is like setting an army of zombies in motion.
A properly structured corporation will not stop until it has destroyed everything in its path in pursuit of maximum profit, and once nothing is left to extract profit from, it will then turn and destroy other corporations, and then governments, and finally, eventually, itself.
We are witnessing the last stage of this process right now.
At the end of the movie War Games, a megacomputer that simulates nuclear annihilations for the Pentagon stops a hair's breadth from actually destroying the entire planet and declares,
"Strange game. The only way to win is not to play."
We are near that point with money, and more and more people are seeing it.
Right now, more and more people don't want to play that game anymore. People who do are finding themselves pushed out of the game no matter what they want. Fewer and fewer players hog more and more of the chips. Who will die with the most chips? We breathlessly await the answer.
Meanwhile, rest assured, we will hear more and more from the powers that be that the game they are playing is the only game in town and that you pass it up at your own peril, even though you can never win. The warnings will become more and more dire. There will be personal insults and abusive remarks aplenty.
Don't believe them.
Instead, get out your copy of A Tale of Two Cities or Oliver Twist or The Jungle or The Grapes of Wrath, and start reading to remind yourself (and them) of what happens when you do believe this crap.
My advice is: Ignore the shrill voices of privilege, power, and wealth and be openly, defiantly unproductive and unafraid. Take up sidewalk art, play your violin in the subway, write poetry, make dandelion wine. Be useless (to them) and compassionate (to others). Be like the self-educated man and go to the library and start at the 100s and stop at 999.99, then hit the 'A' aisle in fiction and keep going all the way to Zebra.
When you're finished, write some stuff of your own to add to the pile.
Money is a symbolic medium of exchange that is worth absolutely nothing by itself. Money has value only to the degree that it provides value. Money must be supported by something genuine and useful that can be traded and redeemed. In the past, money has been variously backed by gold, silver, crops, spices, oil, and, most recently, reputation, but on it's own money is useless. You can't eat it. You can't live in it. It doesn't burn well.
Money is imaginary in a way and to a degree that has become all too apparent in the last several years.
For most of my own life, I have lived as simply as possible on as little money as possible so as to avoid the crappy 'real world' (which is actually imaginary) and appreciate the world of people, ideas, and art (which have tangible value and can be touched and loved). Living outside money can be done if a person wants to do it. People have done it for centuries. Yes you need some. No you don't need as much as you think.
If we don't start valuing what is real and good in the U.S., I fear for our future. We can blame our leaders, we can argue politics, but in the end, it comes down to personal choice and individual responsibility. All that glisters is not gold, no matter how many New York Times columnists try to say that it is. Education is valuable because it expands the mind and feeds the soul and sparks creativity and kindness. Money is for wiping your ass.
We've built an entire economy on sand over the past century or so, and now we're getting urgent calls for more sand. Quick, more sand. More, more, more.
I've been thinking lately that maybe it's way past time for less.
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Comments
Hi Uninvited Writer! My middle daugher is also a librarian and she loves it. She doesn't make anything close to what she's worth but she doesn't regret her education one bit nor is she looking for a more lucrative job. My original family also used to mock the things I loved, so I hired a nicer family. (Although I wouldn't recommend most people go that far! lol!) Thanks for your comment. :)
very nice hub good info
haha, i love this "From now on, let's not do anything unless it makes us money!"
Let me see how I can apply this. I sleep for 10 hours a day. 10 hours of sleep keeps me healthy, so I can save money on medical expenses. Great!
Nice, thoughtfull and insightfull
Great views, great hub, thanks
I've lived both lives, and they both have their lessons. But now that the money is gone or going, I'm definitely trying to make it back to where you are. Supporting a lot of people makes that hard sometimes, but I miss the quality of life you enjoy and that I have not for some years. I don't know how you come up with these hubs, but I enjoy them all.
I think it is so important that a person does what drives them. When I first met my husband all he wanted to do was coach basketball. This is not a lucrative undertaking but I have always had the belief that you should do what you love or what drives you and the money will follow.
Yet another great Hub, Pam
Agree fully - I hate the way that everything has to be talked about in terms of money. What value do you put upon a great conversation, a beautiful poem, or a mountain that has stood for millions of years?In this part of the world, we are not financially rich, but we are surrounded by artistic and natural riches.
I like to be around artists and poets, historians and philosophers - the love of money is homogenizing and dumbing down society.
I am working on becoming useless!
Money has to be the world's most boring topic, followed by sex. But at least for most men, we don't know how to talk about much else.
lol - there is always sport. Mind you, money seems to be the overriding concern there, too!
gr8 hub........good work again as usual...and all those who are in hubpages are really money lovers........lol
I enjoyed this enormously, a well written and thought provoking piece.
Money, art, philosophy, and politics just to name a few, all rolled into one hub. Deserves to be widely read. Thanks.
Hi Steve--Don't get me wrong, I liked earning a decent living. I've had exactly one job that allowed me to do that, but I earned every cent and it damn near killed me. So it isn't like I hate money, I'm just appalled at how as a country our values have gotten so perverted. Money shouldn't be the only thing, that's all I'm saying. Thanks for your kind words. :)
Triplet Mom--I totally agree. I think everybody has one thing that, when they are doing it, time does not exist. They just are in their element. Whatever that thing is, I think that's a person's true calling even if it isn't very profitable. The goal is to find a way to do that thing. At least for me that's how it's always been.
Sufi--I just don't have a competitive or aggressive disposition, and I get tired of hearing how much I'm not worth because of it. I'm sure you know exactly what I mean. I'm with you--I'd rather be in a beautiful place doing something I love and having little money than be in a place that stresses me out and is ugly and abuse and have lots of money. It's a matter of personal values I guess--what does a person value? I think we should get to decide that for ourselves. Thanks for your thoughts!
nms--Thanks! I guess us folks at HP do like us some money--lol! But it's not the only motivation that keeps us here. :)
caymanhost--Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it and I appreciate the compliment and you taking the time to leave it. :)
Excellent job as usual. I fear that if we don't purge our country of this rot that we are doomed.
Excellent hub PG...I believe education is extremely important and I encourage one to go forward with it...Book smarts and wisdom--WOW! Now that's a winning combination...
Hi Tom--I agree. For awhile it looked like the problem was economic, but more and more I'm coming to the view that it's a values issue that runs much deeper. The economy is like a fever--it's just the symptom.
Nancy--I totally agree about education. I really upsets me to see people who already HAVE a great education telling other people they don't need one. Everybody can benefit from learning something new, and college is NOT a waste of time just because it's gotten hideously expensive. Thank you for your comment and you support!
Pam certainly an Interesting hub. Money here In the states Is now becoming just a piece of paper . And for years all the suits on 5th Ave have been teaching us that you are no one unless you have ,the right car , the AMEX card and that new television . And all of us bought that hook line and sinker .
And I unlike you do not believe that we are In the final stages , this Is just the beginning . And now we get to see what we are made of . Noneheless an excellent hub with many truths . I only had a couple of years of junior college where I majored In beer . But I think I can pontificate with the best of the so called critical thinkers of our modern age . Now we are all going to be truly equal soon . And I for one like the Idea of a person being measured by their character as opposed to what Is In their driveway . It Is long overdue In a country where we worship at the altar of materialism .
Good stuff Pam
Wonderful hub. This one is absolutely splendid! You're so right about this. It's always confused me because there is this one big catch to the whole "amass lots of money" thing. What do you do when you have actually got all the things you need and want? There comes a point when you do.
For me that point isn't terribly high compared to most Americans. There are a few big things that I'll work toward that'll be great when I get them, but "new car" isn't even on the list. A home to live in owned outright, well, that's important but it also ought to be a one-off if it's in the right place to settle down. That's not how housing goes in the greed culture though.
I remember being confused in college by people who were only going so that they'd get some high paid job afterward. It didn't seem like that was the point. I can see that's the point if you're going to take plumbing.
I got very creeped out by something in a series of essays I read online that were on a related topic. People would apologize for running down money.
"Not that I have anything against money..."
I ran into that phrase in essay after essay. As if any viewpoint that didn't worship money, didn't praise greed, was some kind of blasphemy!
Maybe they're afraid that if they don't say "Not that I have anything against money..." the spirit of Money will get offended and throw them down into the ranks of the economically enslaved.
This is a huge problem. I do think it can be solved though, and not by applying More Puritanism to it. That's the other side of the same cultural idea. You're supposed to endlessly chase the buck and beat yourself for enjoying it if you happen to catch one.
Someone said to me once "Oh, you simplified your life."
No, I didn't. If I'd kept it simple I'd have done what everyone else did and run the same endless rat race and blindly bought everything everyone else said I should and never thought about anything. I reorganized my life to suit me, and that was more complicated and far more fascinating.
What the economy needs is a good functioning Redistribution System. One that is continuous and self sustaining, and a system of economics that isn't based on endless fast growth of population using up endless unexploited resources that don't exist. The economy is set up for conquest -- for expansion out into other people's land taking everything they've got and doing our things with it and getting more people at the bottom of the pyramid scheme. Doesn't work indefinitely.
We have barely scratched the surface of recycling. Nature recycles every molecule with a brilliant interdependent complexity that leaves me awed at any ecosystem's details. The economy is a living system, it's circulatory, it has to move to continue living. But its health can't rest on endless expansion or exponential speed of expansion. It has to shift to a sustainable balance to work, because it is a living system.
The more diverse it is, the richer and stabler it is. They are finding this out about ecosystems. There will always be a few predatory rich. But what they need to do to gain the points in the status game that makes them who they are, that's something that could shift. In many cultures, including several North American ones, when someone got that big that was when they'd show off by redistributing.
Christmas gifts are a redistribution system. One that's failing as it's one of the first things to be cut when people are trying to make ends meet and continue basic survival. They are less willing to sink thousands of dollars into toys and luxuries for a seasonal holiday if they're still paying off on last year's. So you have what happened last year with far less display -- and the loss of a certain cheer that came from that because there wasn't a corresponding shift to putting time into the display instead of money.
Or because people were working so much overtime they didn't have the time to celebrate either.
I'm thinking about this, once again you've written a Hub that makes me think. Thanks, Pam. This is why I love reading your column and why I'm so glad you're at HubPages instead of a national newspaper being Dave Barry and not getting me enough column inches to reply to every interesting topic!
I've often thought that this country could get a lot out of making college free to anyone at any point in their lives -- always leave that option open. Don't charge for it any more than for the public schools for children. Not everyone is ready for college at the exact age of eighteen getting out of high school.
I got much more out of it at thirty.
In terms of changing direction in life, making it that open to everyone at any age for any reason is going to take a lot of people off the Welfare rolls because they will go in and find something that matters to them. Come out with another direction and a clear plan for what to do next without being locked into "bank teller" or "beautician" or "lawyer" for life.
It's one thing that isn't zero sum. Including its occupational aspects. It could have a broad impact on the economy and a broader one on morale for people who just weren't in a position to do it at the time they were supposed to. Or didn't want to rack up crushing debt.
If they just kept that at the undergraduate level you would have more citizens educated to a level of moral autonomy and wiser voters.
Sad but true...we live in a country that worships money as their god. A self indulgening lifestyle seems to be coveted by the masses. Very few people seem to value loving others. We claim to be a Christian society, but do not following the TRUE teaching of the Christ; "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have Loved you."
Thanks Pam. Really.
In actuality, money is completely useless except as a means of keeping the vast majority of people subservient to a small elite.
Money is good for nothing.
If we lived in a society based on the efficient distribution of resources rather than the artificially maintained illusion of scarcity, money would not even exist.
If you took all the richest people in the world, with all their monetary "wealth" and isolated them on a barren island without fresh water or any food source, of what use would their money be?
Hi tony0724--I agree with you that it will get worse. They've been on TV all year saying this will start to turn around in the second half of this year but that unemployment will continue to get worse. Do they think we are idiots.? Wait, I already know the answer to that. I think it will be even rougher next year and I can't make a prediction beyond that, but in the meantime, we do seem to be on our own.
Robert--You make so many good points here. The one about 'simplify your life' being a misnomer is right on. It's much harder to arrange a life so that you don't NEED to make 'x' amount of money. I agree too that thinking about college as job training is wrong headed. Right now we have a lot of anti-intellectual sentiment in the U.S. but nothing intelligent to replace it with. I think the anti-intellectual sentiment itself is messed up--it comes from class issues and resentments, not from any flaw in the notion that learning about art and the humanities is bad--but there's nothing to stand in for it. It used to be people kept their kids out of school because they had to work, but they taught them things--farming, carpentry, sewing, canning, cooking, etc. Now the attitude remains but it's all attitude. I don't see why we can't have both--trades and college--and why both can't be respected. I think sometime around 8th grade kids should have chances to 'opt out' of school and learn something practical. Kids who have a life of the mind, so to speak, could stay in and learn what they need--science, art, history, whatever. Right now, both high school AND college have turned into ineffective babysitting machines.
I also agree about the deference that MUST be shown to the God of Money. I did it myself in comments. I was just trying to head off the 'you're just saying that because you have no money' criticism. I've had money. I've worked for people who had money who had nervous breakdowns if they chipped a nail. Money is a poor substitute for an engaged life. Thanks for your excellent ideas and thoughts.
K-Rahn-- Thank you for commenting. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and respond.
CWB--I agree. So many of us now, rich and poor, have very few practical skills. We're like colicky babies. That will have to change I'm thinking. I mean, there's just no way this is going to go back to the bubble days. Thanks for your thoughts. As usual we are on the same page. :)
There are many jobs in this world that will not pay you huge amounts of money but that are really important. There are also many high paid managerial jobs that are a waste of time. Go with your conscience and be true to yourself.
Thanks Ethel. I agree with you about that. Some of the most important jobs pay poorly but they are worth doing. I think working for love is way more satisfying than working for money.
There used to be a time when education had a value in it's own right, but those days have vanished like early morning mist on a summer's day. When scarcely anyone could read or write, those who were literate were highly sought after, and richly rewarded for their skills.Artists were also well-regarded back then, because their talents enabled them to illustrate the bible for the un-lettered congregations, and skillful portraiture was in great demand.
Of course, times change. Success is no longer measured in terms of achievement, but in terms of accumulated wealth, and the glitter and glamour that can be acquired with it. This love of shiny things puts us in the same category as magpies. Writing and art and philosophy, and learning for learning's sake, well that's all fine as a hobby, but you'd better not imagine you can earn a decent living doing any of those things!
Hi Amanda--What strikes me as especially cruel is that the ways in which ordinary people can earn a decent living are getting narrower and narrower. Here in the U.S. at least the 'don't go the college' message isn't backed up by any kind of better advice. Right now even the medical field is starting to experience a glut. I think 2010 is going to be even scarier than 2009 at least over here. Thanks for your comments!
I think that if we were all Warren Buffet, we would not be on hubpages writing for fun, literary acclaim or for profit. One commenter, nms said
gr8 hub........good work again as usual...and all those who are in hubpages are really money lovers........lol
I think that he had the most honest response to "The Love of Money" article. Most people surfed the internet and found the site looking to make a little money to help out with household expenses regardless of the economy. The economy is so huge that people only mention it when in reality they just can not find a job even though the newspapers and fast food restaurants are always hiring.
I am a member of hubpages that pays roughly a three figure pay per month, I am a member of eHow that pays a two figure pay per month. I am like one the other responders who do not understand navigating around eLance and found out that you only receive 30% of the jobs that you bid on.
I just joined Demand Studios that makes more sense at $15.00 per article for a possible payout of $75.00 a week. The pay may not sound like much but if you work very hard, you may be able to up the monthly pay to the usual four figure pay.
Money is not everything but if we were of a higher income, we would be Twittering instead of on hubpages unless for therapeutic writing reasons.
We may have worked, got a few degrees, made a few steps that took us away from our livelihoods but the economy can't carry all of the blame. I have only been with Hubpages for six months and is a great believer of the snow ball effect just like Warren Buffet. Warren Buffet purchased GEICO from a husband and wife team many years ago and then got heavily in investments. He is now one of the richest men in the world. I am not looking to become rich, just looking to improve on my writing and thus on my earnings monthly. Warren Buffet is the kindest investor that I have read about even to the point of joining the voters who voted democratic instead of republican. I am not saying that the republicans are a party of no, just saying that Warren Buffet although well off, can relate to people and economics.
Demand Studios is a freelance writing website that employs almost like an employment agency to the tune of even asking are you legally able to work in the United States. Also Demand Studios ask for your uploaded resume along with a work sample and a couple of URL links to your written work. You have to wait about a week to hear from Demand Studio to see if you are hired.
Olga88 from pgrundy's "Top Ten Ways to Make a Little Money Fast" thank you for the writing job referral.
AMEN... I didn't read through all the comments, but Amen to the essay. I've thought it and lived it and said it for years, now. Humanity is not meant ultimately or the lizard life of feeding, fighting, f*cking, and breeding...or, that is to say, a simplistic, stupid material existence based on fear. Because that's all it is. Money is fine and all, but let us not pretend those who pursue 'power, privilege and greed, ' are choosing a lesser path...and at the end game, if held up to be our primary course, the death of our race.
Thanks for your comment lindagoffigan, glad to hear you are doing well with the writing online. You certainly work hard at it.
Lita--Thank you for that affirmation. I appreciate it. I'm trying to do what I care about more and what I have to do but don't care about less. It helps that at this point I don't have a lot of choice! lol!
Wonderful article, Pam. The love of money is an ailment that strikes everywhere, not just the US, that's a pandemic for you, if there ever was one.
The mere thought of education being worthless if it doesn't bring monetary rewards makes me see all sorts of red. I end up thinking that whoever buys into that deserves the shyte they get. Just as you said, "it comes down to personal choice and individual responsibility". You may say I'm a bit harsh, but really, if someone lives by the premise that money is all that counts, or rather, the only thing that counts, then they can live with all the misery (economic and spiritual) that this way of thinking will bring them.
Wonderful piece, thanks for writing it!
Hi Pam - absolutely on the nail. As it happens, I'd started writing something similar, but having read this one I'll probably change the slant slightly and go for it anyway. It's a message that needs to be aired.
Thank you Elena--More and more I'm coming to the view that we don't have a financial crisis so much as a values crisis right now. I've been think of getting retrained in some way (Michigan has some programs for that because of the high unemployment) and I'm not against retraining, but I'm waffling because I feel, geez, i went to school forever, I've got 35 years of work experience, an insurance license, I've got training coming out of my years and at this point I just want to do what I care about. I know it's selfish but that's where I am right now. Thank for your thoughts!
Paraglider--I would love to read what you have to say about it in your own hub. I'm looking forward to it. I think a lot of people are getting very fed up right now. I just read yesterday that AFTER the bubble burst lots of small and regional banks staring making high interest loans to poor credit risks with something they call 'hot money'--that is, money thay is actually 'seeded' to the bank by an out of state (or out of country) financial institution. With more people losing their jobs, and with the loans being high risk anyway, now THOSE banks are going under. It's sickening.
Who is Jane Gault?
You keep stealing my thoughts, girl. You just articulate them a lot better than I ever could.
I may get pedantic over the difference between "an education" and acquiring knowledge as I have little time for institutionalised education which often seems more designed to sustain the social status quo - in other words to keep the wealthy, wealthy, and the poor, poor.
(And I may prefer Charles Bukowski over Charles Dickens as he was one of the few authors to genuinely write about the total crappy life of many in the "modern" world.)
Good to see you saying this and getting this discussion going. It's sad to see how the universities have jumped on the money bandwagon and no one goes there to learn how to think - except about making money.
We all need it up to a point to live a decent life, but to pursue it as a way to prove your personal worth is a sad way to live.
Hi Mike--Who is Jane Gault? LOL! I think Ayn Rand was kind of like the Andrew Dice Clay of her generation. All these women were trying to be the perfect housewife, mopping the floor in pearls and heels and along comes Ayn Rand with this take power screw who you want message. It was shocking but people wanted to be shocked. Also, it was a reaction (IMO) to the communism of the Soviet Bloc countries. But it was so poorly articulated and so daft. Bukowski, yes that's a better example.
Barbara--Hi, thank you for commenting. I just wish we had more humane values. We've really turned into the Great Satan. I mean, here we are, trying to hang onto patriotism and nationalism but we just wrecked the world economy. That's what some people would call 'cognitive dissonance.;
nice hub! I like it!!
Hey Pam,
Loved the article. Have to disagree with you respectfully on what you say about corporations. Corporations provided a mechanism where people could get together and work to produce something greater than any one individual could by him or herself.From your recommended actions, it sounds like you prefer doing things alone.
They also provided liability protection so that people were willing to take risks that they wouldn't otherwise take. Risks that led to many cures and other improvements in lifestyle.
I think we're living in the best era of all humanity! Especially if you live in the United States. If you had lived hundreds of years ago (before evil corporations) than you likely wouldn't have time to draw on the sidewalk or read a good book; you'd be farming.
Best,
Nate
Hi Nate--I'm heard that view expressed before, thanks for sharing it.
Uninvited Writer says:
4 months ago
Excellent hub. It has always bothered me that some people...my family included...don't think education is important unless it can make you money. I'm a true believer in learning for learnings sake. If I believed otherwise I would not have gone into the library field :)