(Expansion) – And, you, how do you get along with money? Do you consider wealth to be a sin? Do you maintain that those who have money are bad and corrupt? Do you think you should not have aspirations? Does your partner know how much you earn? What is your reaction to knowing that your wife earns more than you?
These questions are thought through a lot, some are very socialized while others it is preferable to keep them in a reserved space of our consciences. But all of them have to do with that exchange mechanism that we desire, envy, objectify, condemn …
These times force us to think about the relationship we have with money. The crisis, the pandemic, unemployment, the economic model … Money is scarce, these are difficult times, but also propitious for adaptation to change, resilience, the aspiration to improve the state of things.
Although there are those who think that this is sacrilege.
The president shared his model of thought around the ways to get to money by a nucleus of Mexican society: “There is a sector of the middle class that has always been like this, very individualistic, that turns its back on others Aspirationist, what he wants is to be like those above and climb as high as possible, without moral scruples of any kind; they are in favor of that ‘he who does not trade, does not advance’ “.
What springs were activated in Andrés Manuel López Obrador? He, who claims to defend the most vulnerable classes, lives in a palace. Their children, who are trying their luck as entrepreneurs, aspire to better living conditions. Do you think that poverty is the best condition for our society? Could it be that mediocrity is the merchandise of politicians?
Apart from the ravings of politics, due to our history, contexts and circumstances we have built a strange relationship with money and everything that is related to it. We question success, we do not reward effort, we make fun of the desire to improve, we question the examples to follow, we think that happiness is trickery.
It is true, there is an unjust, deeply unequal economic model that makes fun of meritocracy and social mobility; also, factual groups (political and business) that swim in money thanks to bad practices.
But we also carry absolutely wrong beliefs. And we are responsible for reproducing them.
This is not new. Religious interpretations, for example, have held that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (scholars of the matter argue that, in reality, this is a condemnation for who only accumulate goods and money for their own satisfaction). Anyway, the idea that the rich are bad and the poor are good dominates the imagination. That’s where paternalism and clientelistic contexts come from (which today, by the way, the president expresses).
If we go micro, in some families there are secrets and ways that show that money is an uncomfortable element. How many divorces have been caused by money? What happens when women earn more than men? Who distributes the money at home and makes the big financial decisions? The macho culture also appears in this story.
All that said, money is not bad, the problem is what people do with it. Corruption, ill-gotten fortunes, have more to do with human nature than with money itself. Money is just a currency of exchange. Whoever steals, will always steal. The cheater will always look for the easy way out, with much or little money.
The call then is to improve our relationship with money, on several fronts. It would be worth, for example, to give value to the effort. If we understand where we come from, if we make our contexts visible and recognize our springs, we will not let ourselves be hooked by politicians, we will be able to aspire to use our money properly and, also, we will have the ability to recognize the other and stop setting foot.
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“Wealth consists much more in enjoyment than in possession”: Aristotle.
“Do not estimate money in more or less than it is worth, because it is a good servant and a bad master”: Alejando Dumas.
“Of those who believe that money can do everything, it is reasonable to suspect that they will be able to do anything for money”: Benjamin Franklin.
“Those who believe that money does everything end up doing everything for money”: Voltaire.
“Poverty does not come from the diminution of wealth, but from the multiplication of desires”: Plato.
