"I want to become a millionaire/billionaire."
It is already Mid-October, and some of you might think that talking about Tanabata is a off season, but it doesn't matter: it's 28 degrees Celsius today anyways.
Anyways, I used to consider this wish to be simplistic, and lacking much thought.
But reconsidered, the wish for affluence might be deeper than I once perceived.
Today, one is basically immobile without money. I've come to increasingly appreciate money through my part time job. Before working, I hadn't had any real idea on how hard it is to earn money. Now I do. I may work 8 hours on Sunday, but that'll only provide me with ¥8,000; matriculation cost ¥300,000. I would've had to work another full day just to enter ICU.
One of my ambitions is to pursue the field of Development.
Bill Gates, 2nd of the world's top 20 billionaires, is famous for his philanthropy.
Whatever his motivation is, it makes no difference on the fact that his philanthropic actions make a huge difference. Good intentions will not make the difference, money will.
One encounter that signifies this is the poster of Medicines Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders)
(image from: http://dohiga.blog137.fc2.com/blog-date-201302.html)
which reminded me of this
(excuse my inappropriateness.)
For me, the quote above, which roughly translates into "If you're going to sympathize, give me money/ I need your money, not your sympathy," is more of a buzzword. Therefore, I do not know the exact context in which it was used, but it is from a famous drama: 家なき子/ I think that this poster is counter effective, since it aroused antipathy within me. And not just me, apparently. Just like with negotiations, I think they have a better way of wording their intentions. The poster seems to be unintentionally criminalizing people who do not involve themselves with the efforts of the MSF.
Even though sympathy and empathy may move mountains at times, if no one takes action upon it, nothing will happen. The Arab Spring, for an example, is considered a failure in part because no one took initiative after the successful revolutions. This in turn led to chaos. Bill Gates is saying on his homepage that one motivation to build his own Foundation was a statement by his trusted friend Warren Buffett to not just invest in safe projects but to "[t]ake on the really tough problems." I'm not going to go into what those "safe" or "really tough problems" are, but it's always easier to take these kinds of actions if you already have the money. Student organizations, for an example, must apply to funds in order to financially alleviate themselves.
And before any of this is the fact that self-made millionaires/billionaires are those who have succeeded in their fields of ambition. They can kill two birds with one stone - success in their interests and contribution to those in need. One can, obviously, monetarily succeed in the Development Studies field too.
In addition, "Wealth Creation as an end" is the definition of Economic Development, one of the approaches to Development that I learned in Introduction to Development Studies. With money comes freedom. In this approach, increase of income is regarded as the ultimate goal of humanity.
Of course, Quality of Life isn't determined solely by money. But money is also indispensable for any kind of action today. Without money, many of us wouldn't have been able to attend ICU in the first place. Speaking about myself, I am really grateful for my parents for giving me this opportunity to do so.I don't want to make money-earning as the "end" of my life, but I just felt that the Tanabata wish of becoming a rich person wasn't so ridiculous after all.
Additional Content:
If you're curious about the origination of Tanabata, and why Orihime and Hikoboshi are thought to grant human wishes on their annual date, read this. [J]
There are also other interesting reads that you can do
[J] 七夕と笹の由来
Maki,
返信削除I enjoyed reading your post. As much as I would love to assert that we don't need the power of money in order to resolve conflicts, help others, or support yourself, that isn't so and I am constantly reminded of how helpless we can be without money. For developing countries, what they primarily need is food, medical care etc. which can be traced back to money. Since not everyone is a millionaire/billionaire, I wish that the people who are could realize what they ca n do and use more of their money to good use instead of trying to further expand their own wealth since they have the power to make a difference.
Yuca
Hi Maki,
返信削除I too enjoyed your post, and agree that money can do a lot of good in this world. One thing I have noticed about many people who have been very successful, entrepreneurs, business execs, and the like, is that they often feel compelled to "give back" once they have achieved all the financial success they could have desired. Kitashiro-san is like that. He was a great business leader, but now all his time is dedicated toward causes he believes in, education being a big one.