Get a Grip

So the Apple guy, Jobs, made well over US $600,000,000 this year. Or maybe I should say, the capitalist market economy awarded him $600,000,000 over the past twelve months and his tax attorneys and accountants made sure he could keep most of it.

There is nothing wrong with that from a strictly legal standpoint. But somehow it sounds wrong anyway. US$600,000,000 (and punching in the zeros makes me kind of giddy) is a rather exaggerated figure, even for a 70 hour work week.

Why would he want to keep all of it? What is he possibly going to need that much money for? Buy a space ship, or two?

Yet, even though US$600,000,000 may be a lot of money, in the hands of only one person it is wasted because it won’t get that person anything s/he doesn’t already have nor will it provide what s/he may so desperately want. It won’t, for instance, make Jobs’ family love him more nor will it improve his health or restore air quality in his town.

So why keep it all? Maybe it’s like a badge or a medal. Men seem to like those things and make their allure so appealing that even women now want them, too.

But the truth is that by keeping all that money he loses more esteem than he wins. At least for my part, I feel sorry for poor Jobs, and the likes of him, if it takes that much to feel worthy.

When we moved to Costa Rica, the first thing I did was hire a nanny. In the US, where we had lived before, I hadn’t been able to afford a full-time childcare. With the net wage increase from our move I did what I thought was a smart investment: I bought free time for myself, a decision probably most mothers can understand.

However, that free time didn’t make me any happier than I had been before.

Also, I realized that most children who spend a large amount of time in the care of a nanny turn into whiny brats with horrendous table manners. And it takes a lot of time to correct that!

I found out pretty quickly that you can’t buy your way out of raising your own children right.

At this point in my life, I am grateful to have more time than money.