“Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.” Benjamin Franklin
By Alex P. Vidal
Despite their fortune, some of the wealthiest people on earth are also the loneliest if not the saddest.
According to a conventional wisdom, those who are really wealthy aren't any happier than those who are poor, and there is evidence supporting this.
The very wealthy have different concerns and stresses from the poor, but they're not on balance any happier.
The late Fernando “Nonoy Junji” Lopez Jr., son of the late former Vice President Fernando “Toto Nanding” Lopez Sr., admitted that the P500-million he inherited from his parents did not actually give him true happiness.
“How can I enjoy my money when I am already old (he was in his late 70s),” Nonoy Junji told us during a dinner in Villa, Arevalo district, Iloilo City in 1996.
“And besides, not all of those who wink at you, wave at you, smile at you, hold the umbrella for you, and heap praises on you really mean what they are doing. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize anymore who is real and who is fake.”
TEARS
A former Iloilo congressman recently shed tears while giving a speech in a private affair, lamenting that he has not touched the hand of his only son for a long time.
His wife, also a politician, has missed a lot of important events in their family and the purported source of her “disgust” can be best described by Segmund Freud in the theory of psychosexual development.
Despite his wealth, happiness continued to elude the former Iloilo congressman, who is now in his late 60s and has built a vast political and financial empire in their district unparalleled in Iloilo history.
Several days ago, Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, appeared aghast on sports television sitting beside boxing celebrity Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Despite his money, Buffett wasn’t yet satisfied with his achievement in life. He was actually rooting for the unbeaten champion in the boxer’s rematch versus Marcos Maidana in Las Vegas last September 14.
Those who didn’t recognize Buffett mistook him for Mayweather’s trainer because he was wearing an event I.D. He could not find real happiness and satisfaction as a Forbes Magazine celebrity that he needed to go down to the level of the coaching staff.
MEMBER
The wealthiest member of the Iloilo provincial board also reportedly isn’t happy with her political life and is contemplating on quitting politics.
With assets totaling P93,320,312 and liabilities of P2,186,480, according to her most recent Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), Carmen Rita Monfort-Bautista’s happiness appears to be in the private sector as a businesswoman. Not in politics.
According to grapevine, she won’t seek another term in 2016 as she finds it hard to fly back and forth from Iloilo to Manila, where she lives, vice versa.
Many rich in our society today die unhappy. A rich and popular Ilonggo politician died while his children and second wife were feuding violently many years ago.
HOSPITAL
A macabre episode ensued inside the Iloilo St. Paul Hospital when the politician’s cadaver was forcibly taken away by his children and grandchildren from the morgue while the wife watched helplessly in horror, unable to do anything to stop her rampaging grandchildren.
The wife, who had been beside her politician husband in the hospital for several months before his death, never saw the body of his popular politician husband again.
The children buried the body without her.
When he was 83 years old, Plato, the teacher of Aristotle and student of Socrates, died in his sleep.
He spent the night before his death dancing, according to T.Z Lavine in his book “From Socrates to Sarte: Philosophic Quest.”
He had no material wealth except his wisdom. Plato was the father of logic and his best work was “The Republic.”
He died a poor but happy man.
No comments:
Post a Comment