56. Why wealth can’t make you happy
56. WHY WEALTH CAN’T MAKE YOU HAPPY
I know it’s shallow to think of money and the things money can buy as the secret of happiness; but is there a good, solid, objective, logical proof that this is shallow, or is it just a good sermon? Most people, after all, have some doubts about this. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t worry so much about money, If you see a friend with a new smile on his face today, what’s the first thing you think of to say? Probably something like: “What happened to you? Did you just win the lottery?”
It is impossible for man’s happiness to consist in wealth.
For wealth is twofold, as the Philosopher says, viz. natural and artificial. Natural wealth is that which serves man as a remedy for his natural wants, such as food, drink, clothing, cars, dwellings, and such like, while artificial wealth is that which is not a direct help to nature, as money, but is invented by the art of man for the convenience of exchange and as a measure of things saleable.
Now it is evident that man’s happiness cannot consist in natural wealth. For wealth of this kind is sought for the sake of something else, viz. as a support of human nature; consequently it cannot be man’s last end, rather is it ordained to man as to its end. Wherefore in the order of nature, all such things are below man and made for him, according to Psalm 8:8: Thou hast subjected all things under his feet. And as to artificial wealth, it is not sought save for the sake of natural wealth, since man would not seek it except because by its means he procures for himself the necessaries of life. Consequently much less can it be considered in the light of the last end. . . .
The desire for natural riches is not infinite, because they suffice for nature . . . But the desire for artificial wealth is infinite, for it is the servant of disordered concupiscence, which is not curbed. . . .
. . . [T]he more perfectly the sovereign good is possessed, the more it is loved . . . whereas in the desire for wealth . . . the contrary is the case; for when we already possess them, we despise them and seek others . . . Hence it is written (Sir 24:29): They that eat me shall yet hunger . . . which is the sense of Our Lord’s words (Jn 4:13): Whosoever drinketh of this water, by which temporal goods are signified, shall thirst again. The reason of this is that we realize more their insufficiency when we possess them; and this very fact shows that they are imperfect and that the sovereign good does not consist therein (I-II,2,1).
First of all, nobody loves money itself. Money is only dirty paper. They love the power money gives them to buy things, or the things themselves. Money is only a means—“a means of exchange”. It can’t be the final end. If it had no purchasing power, it would be no better than any other dirty paper.
We love money so much because it can buy anything—anything money can buy: houses, cars, good food, police protection, the best medical services, political influence. It can buy even sex, though not love (i.e., prostitutes); and even the fake ecstasy of drugs, though not real ecstasy. Money is like the sky; it’s spread over everything, i.e., every thing.
But “what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul?” To sell your soul, your self, to the Devil for the sake of world—it’s not only wicked, it’s really, really stupid. For who has that whole world that you sold your self to the Devil for now, if you have sold your very self to the Devil? Answer: Not you, for there is no “you” there any more to have anything. You’ve sold your “you” to “the ruler of this world” (Jn 12:31). If you sell yourself to him for money, you belong to him, and so does all your money and all it can buy. A rich slave is still a slave. His master actually prefers a rich slave, because it is the master, not the slave, who controls all the slave’s riches.
The Devil walks into a lawyer’s office. “What can I do for you?” asks the lawyer, politely. “Ah, but it’s what I can do for you”, replies the Devil. “I can make you richer than Bill Gates. All you have to do is sign this little contract giving me your soul and the souls of all your descendants forever.” “So what’s the catch?” asks the lawyer. Why do we laugh at that? Because we’re laughing at ourselves.