Me myself personally just want enough money to be comfortable and enjoy the company of my loved ones. I'm good with that. Some extras would be nice, but I'm okay with what I can afford.
If I want a new TV, I check out what is the best I can afford, and what is a cut above that, & I bargain hunt.
Recently at work I mentioned that billionaire libertatians were running our government, & a colleague said that she wants to be a billionaire libertarian. I missed the chance to say, "Good luck w/that." & let it slide. Another colleague wanted to know why people who make lots of money shouldn't be allowed to keep all their money.
Next time it comes up I will tell them that it's the Government that guarantees the value of money. If we all keep all our money, the Government collapses and the money becomes worthless.
The logical conclusion of everyone keeping their money is Somalia.
The billionaires will be long gone, exploiting third world countries. But all their billions of US dollars will be worthless. Even they will be poor.
Pay your taxes or forfeit infrasturcture.
Pay your taxes or get an illiterate labor pool.
Pay your taxes or get a labor pool who believes the Flintstones is historically accurate.
This is why I believe California will survive.
CA is innovative, & will move forward inexorably, and remain a magnet for innovative business.
So if the Confederate states want to keep on re-enacting the freaking Civil War & teaching their children that Adam & Eve rode Dinasaurs, knock yourselves out. That is a recipe for chicken stripping and assembly line jobs.
Anybody can do it, even a robot.
America needs to get serious about education. We need to be the smartest SOBs on the planet if we want to maintain our rep as innovators & badass leaders.
If we keep dumbing down & ignoring the vast wealth of our thinkers & innovators, well then, my friends, we are doomed.
Which brings me back to the love of money.
The jerks who love money above all else are strangling what has made America great.
We were founded on anti-Aristocrat sentiments. But we find ourselves being bullied by Aristocrat wannabes today.
Hell No! There ain't no damn aristocrats in America!
And if you want to keep all your money, move to Somalia.
This is America & we take care of each other. We love each other. We are all immigrants.
Sometimes we get all mixed up in our heads, but we have always been all mixed up in our culture. And we got here b/c we have always pitched in to make our country glorious.
We have to pay our taxes if we want to keep having roads, bridges, firefighters, cops and teachers.
Paying taxes is the cost of civilization.
Get used to it.
And an educated polity is money in the bank.