Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Wealth, attainment of

There's a commercial playing currently on our local crying-admin radio station where a warm and effusive voice touts a seminar at the mall Holiday Inn on topics relating to personal finance and how to make the most of your ducats. With a free gift (I have plenty of ballpoints, thanks)!



What slays me are the little nibbles of the knowledge that can be gained at this shaminar, my very favorite being: "Saving money won't make you rich!"

Because, things being the way they are, people should still be learning tricks to become Housewives of Tackytown-style RICH! As opposed to just, say, eating and paying one's bills.

This is an old trope from the "happiness is a destination" school and I'm jazzed that it still survives!

Not saying one should keep cash in a Medaglia d'Oro can, either. One can never beat the gold standard set by Hetty Green, once featured in Ripley's as the "greatest miser of all time":



Her frugality extended to family life. Her son Ned broke
his leg as a child, and Hetty tried to have him admitted in a hospital charity
ward. When she was recognized, she stormed away vowing to treat the wounds
herself. The leg contracted gangrene and had to be amputated
he ended up with a cork prosthesis.

I mean, doesn't she look happy, though?


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