You are a billionaire. You wouldn't
think of flying first class. Nothing
so rushed and inconvenient as that.
You take your private jet when you
want to drop in on grandma for Christmas.
You don't stay in fancy hotels when
you travel. You have your yacht if
the destination is on the coast and
you have homes in various places that
you might want to travel, all fully
staffed. You can drop in on Senators
without an appointment and they drop
everything to see you. Your influence
is felt in boardrooms all over the
world. Sounds nice doesn't it?
So do you have any problems? Well,
maybe one or two.
Does anyone else want your money?
You bet they do. What are they willing
to do to get your money? Anything
they can think of. They will lie,
cheat, steal, murder, and worse (if
you can think of worse). You can't
really trust (safely) any of your
many employees. They are all exposed
to temptation. So you can't rest
easy because your vast wealth is
not safe.
Is your fortune safe? Perhaps not.
If your money is in money
the value of that money can change.
Inflation
is a great fear. So you need to have
parts of your wealth in a variety
of currencies around the world. Even
then banks can fail and inflation
that strikes in one nation's economy
tends to affect other nations' economies
as well. If your money is invested
in corporations their value may drop
as we have recently seen on Wall
Street. Even some of the most well-respected
firms have gone bankrupt in the last
year. You could lose
money in the market. If you are in
a nation with an unstable government,
the government might simply confiscate
your assets as was the case in Russia
and China in the 20th century.
But you will always have your family,
right? I'm not so sure. For one thing,
your fortune is a great temptation
to kidnappers. No matter who you
may hire to guard your loved ones,
the guards may be bribed or may go
into kidnapping for themselves. Your
family is always at risk because
you have such great wealth.
Your family will want your money
as well. Just because you have made
them wealthy in their own right doesn't
mean that they have all they want.
They just might want it all. They
just might want your position. And
of course your wife married you because
she loved you. Her affections were
not affected at all by your wealth.
Or were they? How can you tell? Do
you have friends? Are they really your friends or only people who like
your wealth and power? Do they really
tell you the truth about yourself
or do they say just what they think
you want to hear?
What about your reputation? What
do people really think of you? Do
they think you earned and deserve
your wealth and power? Do people
think you must have been doing illegal
and immoral things to get so much
money?
The Bible has several stories about
wealthy men. One gets the impression
that rich people are not likely to
get into heaven. If you are very
rich, how can that sit with your
conscience? How can you have all
that money while there are so many
poor people suffering and dying that
you could save and have chosen not
to do so?
How would things be different for
you if you were just as rich but
the society and economy of which
you were a part was using a money
which was not a Physical Object Money,
a POM? So let's start with whether
other people want your money. Since
a non-POM money cannot be transferred
from one person to another, there
is no way they could get your money.
They may envy your wealth or even
be jealous of your wealth but they
can't get your money so they won't
even try. That means you don't have
to worry that any of the people you
work with has designs on your money.
Your family cannot inherit your money
so they want you to live a long time
and continue to give them presents.
Your fellow man in a non-POM economy
will have no temptation to do you
harm because that would cost them
money.
Is your fortune safe in a non-POM
economy? It is as safe as the continued
existence of the society. Short of
some disaster which destroys the
productive capacity of the nation
(a meteorite or a super-volcano,
perhaps) your money will have a constant
buying power. It will never suffer
from inflation and there will always
be lots of luxuries for you to buy.
You can't lose any of it to the courts
since not even judges can have the
numbers in your account decreased.
Your money can only buy luxuries
so the failure of the enterprises
in which you participate cannot reduce
your money.
Is your family safe? We there is
always the possibility of accident
or illness but no one would want
to kidnap them since you can't pay
a ransom. There is no way their being
kidnapped could benefit others. Also,
preventing their kidnapping would
earn those who prevented it quite
a bit of money. Should you hire body
guards for them anyway, there would
be no way to bribe them using the
non-POM since it can't be transferred.
Since you can give people expensive
gifts I cannot promise that people
would be honest with you about how
they really felt. In that regard
things would still be the same. That
is just a price you pay for having
so much wealth.
Your reputation would rise with
your account balance. Anyone in a
non-POM economy who is rich has done
things which greatly benefited many
other people. Your wealth is silent
testimony that you have been a great
benefactor. Others will respect your
goodness as well as your capacity
to do good. They will be eager to
cooperate with you in whatever enterprise
you choose to pursue. They will believe
in you and will "obey" you
in the sense that if you tell them
to do something they will likely
do it in the expectation that it
will make a lot of money for them.
Your power would be unrestrained.
There would be no laws restricting
that power. There would be no person
opposing that power. All would support
and encourage the exercise of that
power. Your power would be safe.
The conscience of a wealthy man
could rest easy about having a lot
of money. Rather than being a sign
of having ignored the needs of others,
such wealth indicates that one had
done great works for others. It would
be a sign that so far as man can
determine, the rich man is, indeed,
on his way to heaven.
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