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The Rule of Money

Don’t let money control your life.

That’s one of the foremost rules in life.

The ‘money’ referred to here used to just mean wealth. The rule says that no one should be so engrossed with gaining wealth that he neglects anything else in life – the more important things in life.

The times have changed so much, though. Nowadays, the ‘more important things in life’ is so dependent on how much monetary worth you have. It sounds really harsh, but looking at how we live now, that’s how it seems to work.

The quality of your life depends on how much money you earn. Unless you live in a secluded place, untouched by urbanization and the modern life, that how much important your earnings are. If you don’t have a lot, you don’t have a ‘quality’ in your life. And, by quality it means spending happy and loving moments with your family, having good friends and being able to help others. All of those mentioned are part of the core ‘important things in life’. If you don’t have a lot, you either spend most of your time trying to gain more or you live your life as bitter as possible. Money now controls both your time and the quality of your living.

Maslow’s rule of necessity takes effect here. The first priority for anyone is the material needs of a person. Once you have achieved and can maintain that, only then can you move on to the other higher accomplishments in life. It is a widely accepted rule. However, it does make the other ‘human’ needs dependent on materialistic accomplishments. How could one really help another or show kindness when he’s mind is pre-occupied with hunger or sickness and is about to collapse in 5 seconds. There are of course, rare cases where this could be possible, but how rare is that. Generously, could we say there are a few thousand of those rare cases out of the billion people overpopulating the world? Does that mean the remaining several billions are materialistic, selfish creatures?

Kudos to those who have nothing yet still is able to give a lot to others. They are so few. That’s why they get featured on TV or in the news, because they are so rare. What does that make the rest of the world?

Practicality does seem to bend the rule for most of us. We’re not quite breaking the rule, just bend it enough until we achieve monetary stability. After that, we can deal with the ‘more important things’ in life. It is a crazy life.

In a way, it sounds as if the only people who can lead a happy life, and be kind and charitable are the rich ones. It is true and we all know it. Before anyone of us, could consider helping another, we need to tend to ourselves first. Is it selfish? Is it practicality? Is it just plain logical?

One thing is sure: it is common and normal.


So, did we all have broken one of our foremost rules in life? 
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