I fucking hate money.
I may have mentioned this antipathy previously, but as I’ve spent the past few months working 1 & 2/3 jobs and actually saving money and am still—STILL—awoken by fears of debt and bills, it’s worth emphasizing.
Yes, money is useful—I get that. Unlike Sue Lowden, who thinks bartering livestock for splints and surgery is a good idea, I find it much easier to stuff a few pieces of green paper than chickens into my wallet, and coins are certainly a more durable form of change than eggs. Even an anti-capitalist like me can agree with Adam’s Smith’s observations on the ease and convenience of a common currency.
But I hate having to think about it, having to worry over it, to be shaken from sleep by it. I work—more or less hard—and certainly a lot, but months of unemployment years ago have left me in a hole which narrows my views and shortens my breath.
Piss and moan, piss and moan, I know. Get back to work!
But before I do, a bit more kvetching, over the top and angry and sly and funny for being over the top and angry and sly, courtesy of Caroline Fraser:
Ratty Go Batty
Look what your God has done to me. —Dracula
What a joke, this planet. The inmates
running the asylum. See them
in their little cars, whizzing? Stop
and go! Riding the escalators, flashing
their shiny finery, hoarding,
hawking. Wearing dark glasses
indoors. The rest of the animals
continue rational, sleeping in caves
or nests in winter, pursuing food, marking
territory clearly. None of this
petulance. What can be done
to restore order? Give the government
over to the insects, for the tidy digestion
of all that dung, give the infants
to the higher mammals
with the softest fur. Let it be done.
Money is such a weird thing, and what it does to our heads. I mean, think about it: most people are more willing to discuss the intimate details of their sex lives than they are to talk about finances!
Not quite related, but NOVA on PBS tomorrow night is airing a program called “Mind Over Money”, apparently about how money affects the way we think and how the markets are affected by that. Might be an interesting watch…