How Much is Enough !

There is this colleague, who has an uncanny ability to say things that startle you as much as force you to think about them. Recently, to a casual remark of mine on how much a man can accumulate, he replied that human beings are genetically coded for perpetuity! Apparently we  simply donot factor in that existence is finite.

Probably the same code that makes us love our kids more than anything in life. The gene wants continuity. Perhaps similar to the code that makes us grow nails or hair still even though we may have lost the use for them long back.

And in the automatic assumption of continuity, where is the limit to the quest to accumulate? Ofcourse, as accumulation grows, so do "needs". But, surely, there has to be a point of saturation for the utility. Afterall, as my favourite Bond says (in a non-Bond flick), "what are you going to do with six billion dollars that you cann't do with four?"

May be spend more. That way you help the economic activity more (..this was a comment from a rich industrialist as per a news paper report recently). While this is an interesting viewpoint, it still cannot explain away the shortage of generosity of many a billionnaire. There may be exceptional philonthropists, but they will remain exceptional, "... for the Truth is that we are kind for the same reason as we are cruel, in order that we may enhance the sense of our own Power"(Aldous Huxley), or subdue the rare feeling of guilt somewhat.

Perpetuity, Philonthropy and Multipler effects apart, the critical issue is the culture that greedy accumulation brings. May be it starts with an honest day's work. At some stage, the rules and the grey areas are there to be manipulated and taken advantage of. As the networth and the associated social status grow, then comes the killer hubris and (perhaps) a feeling of immunity. You can fix anything and particularly so since everything or everyone seems to have a price. There are conduits... Land, Gold, Corporate structures and complicated accounting ways to keep the game going. Who is immune if everyone wants to wash hands in the "behati ganga..."(the flowing water)? And that itself is fostering the excuse... if everyone does it, whats wrong?  And it goes on as a great man once said, albeit in a slightly different context......

  

"Accumulate, accumulate! That is Moses and the prophets!" - Karl Heinrich Marx, 1867