I have a question for everyone to ponder. It's not one that hasn't been purposed before. But the answer thus far seems to be a little ambiguous.
The scenario here is: If you were to give me a million dollars, would it do any good?
There seems to be a divided camp on this answer.
Some of you would say that no, in fact, it wouldn't do me any good.
Why? Because of several reasons, it seems:
1) The taxes on a million dollars would be quite expensive.
2) The money would only be squandered or otherwise wasted, frivolously spent by someone who couldn't handle the responsibility of hard work and investing in the future.
3) It wouldn't be enough. The begging for handouts and freebees that other hardworking individuals have earned for themselves and were also gracious enough to share wouldn't stop there. More would be demanded to satisfy you, feeding your dependency on others.
4) We'd only be creating a monster, another of the leaches of society, those individuals with the audacity to feel so privileged in this life that everything must be free to them, creating the beggars we loath.
Clearly, right?
The other side of this is that yes, it would do a lot of good. Why?
1) Because I'd be able to pay off any debts, create financial security for my family and my loved ones, put my children and my grandchildren through college, set up savings and other investments so that we, and the future generations of us, don't have the worries that come with financial insecurities.
2) Because I'd be able to invest the money into my dreams and passions in life. Maybe it's to begin my own business. That bakery, restaurant, or welding shop of your dreams then becomes an obtainable reality, one that you could now actually materialize with the capital at hand.
3) Because life and the things within it aren't cheap. Maybe it's to buy a new home to support the size of your family and it's needs. Maybe it's to invest in much-needed home repairs that were too expensive before, like a new roof to fix a leaky one. Maybe the need is to repair or replace a vehicle that's broken down, or to buy one for the first time. Maybe it's medical bills or expensive medical equipment or treatments not covered by other means.
4) Because I could do a lot of good with it: help others, be charitable and serve mankind by helping others in need, others who have also struggled along the same life paths, by creating financial means and access for those less fortunate, and maybe by funding or by the ability to purchase a needed element, like wheelchairs for the disabled who are too poor, or food for those who cannot afford a meal. It would allow me to be able to show compassion to so many others because of the compassion that was bestowed onto me.
Pay-it-forward, if you will.
So which is the right answer here? If you were to give me a million dollars, would it do any good? Yes or no?
As it turns out, both answers here are correct.
It depends on the person.
If you are the compassionate, charitable, pay-it-forward type, then yes, a million bucks would do a lot of good, and not just for the recipient, but for those other individuals they influence as well.
They are the ones to open their ground-floor businesses or charitable organizations and are willing, out of love, compassion given what they have had to endure, and passion for what they want do to, to put in every ounce of blood, sweat, and tears into their work simply because they love what they do and want to see a change in the world.
Unfortunately there are those people whom the million dollars wouldn't help.
They are the type that will try to take where they can. The darker side of humanity shows us there are people out there willing to rob, cheat, and steal for their every need instead of putting forth an honest effort to obtain it themselves. But that's unavoidable for any applicable situation.
These are also the individuals who squander what they have managed to gather, or hoard what they have gained (some to overtly excessive proportions) with no care for how it would affect others who could benefit from the same resources. They have no compassion, no empathy towards any, even at the expense of another human's well-being and survival.
Right now, our society values the hard worker, condemning the takers. But that seems to only ring true as sentiment.
We as a society seem to have missed the mark entirely.
We now see a piece of paper as the end all and be all of life. This object has become more important than humanity.
We idolize it and those who have hoarded it.
Money, meant to be obtainable by all, became a way to influence, trade, justify, condone, and conduct the destructive behaviors and practices that are produced by the greed, to have as much of it as one can get their hands on.
We celebrate record profits for a noted person, business, or corporate entity. The status of someone's bank statements and Forbes rankings are the milestones of success and are used to rule over humanity instead of for the betterment humanity.
Personally, I would think the mark of success should be redefined, and so should the original question.
"If I gave you a million dollars, would it do any good?"
But here's the problem with it.
Apparently it isn't actually a question anyway but a rhetorical thought used to justify our personal greed while releasing ourselves from any guilt for not helping out another human being in need.
It's not a question at all but a way to lord our successes over the less fortunate. It's showing off the tools you have, knowing what it can be used for, while explaining why you have to keep them locked away from others, denying its use and the very purpose it was created for.
Also, assuming the one in need is lazy is just lazy in itself.
It's a rationale we employ to separate ourselves from the less fortunate. We want to protect ourselves from the hardships life has, trying to keep them from happening to us ourselves.
This has become a lifestyle society has adapted to, one that is backwards and highly detrimental to humanity as a whole. It needs to stop now.
But the plights of your fellow man are not your problem, right? The problem is too big to do anything about, right? Wrong.