February 16, 2018: Wealth

Musonius Rufus, Lectures, 19.91.26-28: "How much better is it to be known for doing well by many than for living extravagantly? How much more worthy than spending on sticks and stones is it to spend on people?"

There are those that get glorified for being rich, I'm sure you can think of a few celebrities that are always going on extravagant trips, have pet tigers, wear dresses made of diamonds! But who wouldn't be able to spend money if they had it, its an easy thing to do. But whats harder to do is if you have that money to spend on improving the lives of people who can not afford it. I'm not advocating blind donations but just saying that it is harder to do that once you have a lot of money than to spend it on cars and gain the envy of people.

There are many examples of this type of behavior, most recently I read and article on the Gates foundation (https://www.gatesnotes.com/2018-Annual-Letter) and it summarizes why they do what they do. Even though Bill Gates is not living a life with old cars and old clothes, he still is doing something that is to me one of the hardest things once you have lots of money, is to find the best use for it in improving lives of all in the world.

Stoic philosophy does not interpret being rich or aspiring to be rich as a bad thing or not something that you should try to acquire. In fact some of the stoics in history were rich and powerful (Marcus Aurelius). Your motives are as you get that money and what you do and react after you have that money is most important.