The chairman of Nissan didn't feel like he was getting paid enough so, with the help of some insider within the company, he appropriated company funds to make up the difference. It wasn't enough that he had four houses, traveled the world on a corporate jet, and dined with heads of state. Scandalous, this was, to the Japanese men who had hired this guy so they fired him. Oh the pain. I guess he'll have to learn how to live on less that his multiple millions of dollars a year salary.
A buncha expats from Venezuela came to the U.S. awhile back loaded with loot from that country and were livin' large, that is, until the indictments started comin' down. One guy had sixty horses.
The view above my dining room table. Rad, huh?
Jay Lee- Unsplash.com
Now and again, sprinkled throughout the news, are stories like this. But you don't have to plunder a company or a country every day to make up for the difference in newsworthiness between stuff like this and the boring old stories about the mundane lives of ordinary people.
Take just one regular Joe or Jane and give them a thousand bucks and that is like an OMG moment, according to the news purveyors. "Waitress gets a $1,000 tip from a guy that just ordered coffee!" runs the headline. "Homeless guy gets a free car (that he can now live in)!" "Radio contest winner receives free plane ride to Disneyland, gets to meet members of her fav pro baseball team". Feelgood news. Stuff that makes the little people feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
But for the people that have a lot, they need a lot more than that to achieve satisfaction. They raise the bar on what constitutes 'personal contentment'. Over the years I've read many stories about them and this thing called 'greed' continues to irresistably compel. So what is greed, then? It's definitely relative to one's viewpoint. I'm sure the former chairman of Nissan didn't think his actions were a big deal because he compared his salary to the salaries that American CEO's rake in, and sports heros, and figured "Hey! I'm turnin' around a huge company here, not just dribbling a basketball! I deserve more!" and you can't argue with that, can you? I mean, in the world of fat cat crony capitalism, you're losing street cred if you don't bend the pay rules and push the envelope further to keep up with the Dow Jones’. After all, CEO's universally think "I'm leading this thing and competing in the global economy! I should get a helluva lot more than the guy who is just showing up to pull another shift and has, in comparison, light years' less responsibility!"
Or if you're the one leading the sports team, shouldn't you get more than a defensive lineman, a relief pitcher, or a second stringer that comes in off the bench when ace guard Yours Truly gets into foul trouble?
But what if you're running solo, and people around the whole country are watching as you study how to make your approach shot on the tricky par 5 14th where you got water on the left, a steep dropoff behind the green, bunkers in front, and out of bounds on the far right?
Can't fault that guy for sidlin' up to the pay window and takin' home a million dollar check for four days of work, can you? After all, a million were entertained. A buck a head!
"But don't worry, average people" say the guys and gals on SportsCenter, on Wall Street, in The Media, and others. "After we dose you with enough shock therapy, you'll get used to it. You'll adapt".
And amazingly, we have! We average folk have learned to find happiness in lesser arenas. And it is through that lens that we now look upon the Race To The Top with a great deal of curiosity. "What do they hope to gain there?" we wonder. "How much better can it be? I, we, could use a little more, 'tis true, but that much more?"
But maybe it's us commoners that need our mindset's changed, from the ultra wealthy's standpoint. Like when you're on a cruise ship, and that first couple of days you kind of feel guilty that your bed is made for you and the food is right there hot and ready and the dishes get magically whisked away. But, after only three days onboard, you experience a turnaround and start going "Yeah! This is great! and then by the end of the cruise you’re so pampered and lazy you find you're ridiculously ill-prepared to reenter reality, the work-a-day land populated by Do It Yourselfers (‘cuz nobody else will help). Next comes a week or so of post-cruise depression because you are suffering the effects of consuming a mere morsel of the good life. Imagine what being exposed to millions (or billions) would be like!
So you can't fault the ones who have assumed the perils of huge accumulation and stumbled. Cruise ship commoners know how quickly the conditioning takes and how little resistance they are able to throw in the face of lavishness. Morals and ethics just have to fly out the window when piles of money come your way- or do they?
I guess that's something that can only be individually experienced. I have no direct experience with that (in this lifetime) so I don't know whether or not to thank God for my present condition but......
.....other people have volunteered. They are the guinea pigs, the wayshowers for us on how to handle hefty compensation, whether that compensation has been gained honorably or via some back alley method. Somebody has to embark upon the journey that no present day, present culture man or woman has gone on before, and report back to us.
Perhaps through their pioneering efforts they will be able then to satisfactorily answer the burning question we all have:
"Is it really so much better there?”