台北保成 法政權威 公職巨擘

Money destroys friendships, marriages, and family unity. Money,

which in itself has essentially no value, exerts more power over

human lives than any other single commodity. It brings out the best

and the worst in people. An elderly woman is mugged and beaten by

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two youths for less than a dollar, while across town a couple on

unemployment take in a runaway teenager and feed him because he

has even less than they do.

The strange and illogical things that people do with and for

money fill the newspapers and bring a smile to the lips of millions of

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readers, whose own money behavior is almost as strange. In the

United States, for example, it is estimated that there are

approximately eight million compulsive gamblers, men and women

whose primary purpose in life is to bet money. On the other side are

the millions of compulsive savers, who are compelled to save money

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with the same vengeance that compulsive gamblers are driven to bet

it. In the same class are the millions of compulsive bargain hunters,

who drive miles out of their way to save two cents on a gallon of

gasoline, or who buy potato peelers by the dozen because they are

on sale at half price, or who haunt swap meets and garage sales

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buying anything that is cheap, even though they have no use for it.

To most people, perhaps, the lure of money seems to be a

natural phenomenon. They have become so indoctrinated with the

idea that having money is important that they no longer question why.

They are unaware that perhaps what they are truly seeking is an

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increase in self-respect, or security, or freedom, or love or power.

While they may not be aware of what it is they truly want from life,

they feel sure that money will provide it for them.