To: Neocon who wrote (46978 ) 5/11/1999 8:32:00 AM From: jlallen Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Neo- I have a few minutes this morning so I thought I would get back to our conversation about "greed". The point of our previous conversation was that people are too motivated by temporal, materialistic "things" or maybe more accurately, the quest for things (houses, cars, status, money) and not enough with truly important things such as community, family, children, etc. When one makes a decision to parent, one must be prepared to make major sacrifices. "Greed" for these "things" rises above our regard for family, children, etc. all too often and we rationlize it by saying its for the children. For instance, Ish made the point that I have a nice income and I can afford to raise my children in relative comfort. This is true, but I made choices and thereby I put myself in a position to do so. No one ever handed me anything and I've earned every dime I ever made beginning since I was old enough to bus a table in the family restaurant. I worked full time when I was in college, did ROTC, did my service, stayed in the Reserves and worked full time while I went to law school at night. It would have been a lot easier to settle for the 25K job and to be heavier into partying and drinking with a lot of my friends, but I knew that would limit my choices later in life. Also, figured that God had a better plan in mind for me than to end up flippin' burgers. Greed and immediate self gratification all too often shape major choices in our lives. When my wife and I decided to have children, she left her job and I left the one I was working in Chicago for one which pays about a third as much, in a rural area in NE. I left that job to work for myself so I'd have more flexibility to work to my own wants and to have more time free to be a father to my children. Now don't get me wrong, I still do OK. I happen to be pretty good at what I do but I could be doing a whole lot better and I have chosen the other path. Not braggin'. Just the facts. The law of diminishing returns applies here. When is the quest for things for the children outweighed by the deleterious effect that the time spent in the hunt negatively affects those same children? That is my point and that is why I say that people are motivated primarily by "greed". I've been there and I believe I've made a better choice. I don't consider this heroic either. I don't think its heroic to keep the big picture in mind and to consider the consequences of the choices one makes in the long term. Personal accountablity. I blame no one for the mistakes I make. JLA
