1Reviews and everything / Is money the root of all evil or can you buy happiness
.docAlex Kvartalny @ flamedragon27.blogspot.com
Group 501
Is Money the Root of All Evil or Can You Buy Happiness?
For many centuries the attitude towards money has been controversial. Debates are still going on nowadays whether it is the ultimate goal and can provide solutions to all the problems. Or perhaps it is the means on the way to spirituality. Is a lot of money morally bad and is it only the morally corrupted people who have a fortune? Will these questions ever be answered?
In her talk show Is Money the Root of All Evil or Can You Buy Happiness Gloria Hunniford discusses the role of money in modern society. Some words can be said about the presenter. Gloria Hunniford was the first woman to have her own daily radio show on Radio 2, which she presented for thirteen years until 1995. Her show Open House gave Channel 5 its highest ever ratings. She has won many prestigious awards including TV Personality of the Year and has made a highly successful health video called Fit For Life.
The first guest of the programme is Vidal Sassoon – the most famous hairdresser in the world. He started from nothing. He came from a poor family and was born in 1928. His mother worked in a sweet shop and they had a really rough time. He started out in the 40s as a shampoo boy in the East End of London. Buy working 12 hours a day he managed to succeed. Working with his team Vidal Sassoon went to different places. But they were not earning much, they were always borrowing. They addressed a bank in the City asking for a loan. He guessed right and in the end he got more money. That allowed to him start production in California. Vidal sold his international business at 50 mln pounds in the 80s.
Money may seem his priority, but it all was not for money. He tried to develop his full potential. When the talent is there money comes to it. Vidal Sassoon is aware of the sharp inequality in the society. But he was brought up in the capitalist system. To a degree, he stands for the democratic capitalism with a big “D”. He also stresses the importance of social conscience. If you have money, you have to have a sense of responsibility before the society. You have no other choice but to be involved in creating a better world. He admits that we have to rethink money. You cannot buy happiness. You buy the influence and power. Happiness comes of what you do with it.
Having listen to this opinion, Gloria moves on with the show. The next guest is Chris Worth, a 21-year-old freight agent. His primary goal was the acquisition of wealth; he intended to become a millionaire within 5 years. His aim was to get rich quick, not just make a good living. Two years ago he started his own business. He admits that there is a lot to be said for employment. There is a steady paycheque in the bank every month. But it is not so exciting. He feels far more interested in his own work doing his own business that doing work for somebody else, being employed. In order to become rich you must have a ruthless streak and tremendous confidence.
We hear another opinion on the show, that of Andrew Gimson, a journalist, who knows that avarice is one of the seven deadly sins and he does not say greed in not a vice and the love for money is the root of all evil. But he is also sure that money itself is not wrong. Money makes life more colourful, increases the sense of liberty. Prosperous people can do things that they think are worth doing rather that what the government is going to pay them do. He spotlights the opinion that greed, the pursuit of money, is bad, but it had good consequences. Greed leads to creating new jobs and wealth. The importance of the sense of society, social conscience and involvement in society are stressed. Anyone who has even a moderate amount of money has a duty to help others who are seemingly worse off. His message is very clear.
Edwina Curry is looking after 80,000 people in her constituency. She is a conservative MP for Derbyshire. People who live in Derby are involved in manufacturing aero engines, cars and have to make things with their own hands. One of the tragedies of the society, she mentions, is the tendency to play down industry and business. Nowadays an engineer is seen as far less important than an accountant. Edwina Curry likes money just like everyone else and wishes she had a bit more. She also highlights the importance of the sense of society. People who have money, she thinks, have a moral obligation to help others, especially in the time of recession.
Next comes David Sullivun, a newspaper publisher and a self-made millionaire with a personal fortune estimated at 65 million pounds. His goal from a very early age was acquisition of wealth. He used his degree in economics to set up a business selling pictures of nude women through the post. He comes from an ordinary working class background and wealth has always been important for him. David Sullivun started from nothing. He began selling topless pictures of nude women through the post and made it a business. He worked hard, did not like holidays and took a 5-day holiday in 13 years. He became a millionaire at 26 and still goes to the fish and chips shop for lunch as he values money. However, there is one question: does the end justify the means? David knows that many people disapprove of the way he earns money. But everyone has the right to have their own opinions. He does not deal with pornography. The bottom line is that we all should be tolerant to the people whose views differ from our own. David has to answer anther question: can you buy happiness? For David, money is something that helps to have things that are very important. But it is not the only answer.
Gloria Hunniford introduces Miles Moland the former boss of the London office for a Wall Street firm who is sure that the pursuit of money is not the uppermost on everybody’s mind. He used to have a large house in South Kensington and to drive a Mercedes, as well as to receive a 6-figure salary multiple to the Prime Minister’s when he ran a London office for a Wall Street firm, but later on he chucked it all and went to Paris. There he travelled together with his wife on foot and afterwards wrote a book about his travels. Miles tells the audience that he loved his work but becoming a boss was not as satisfying as when he decided to quit. He felt trapped in the job. For Miles it became a torture really. Mike felt as if he was working while sleeping and he did not grow spiritually any more. He has a reasonable and dispassionate attitude towards money. He continues that if you do not have the housing, food, education, moneyless, you will have your life destroyed. It is a most corrupting thing. But above certain level money becomes not so relevant. He concludes that there should be a cut-off point in a way.
Then Frank Stallone appears (brother of Sly), a singer, a composer and a professional boxer. He sings in his song that to live a life of a millionaire and to drink bootleg liquor is very pleasant, but then you get busted and nobody knows you when you are down and out. He has such an experience because he has known it from both sides (just like Jonny Mitchell with her Clouds) Frank has had his fortune and has lost it. He started out when a kind from nothing. He made a living as a street corner singer. He knows very well what it means to be a millionaire and to do well and successful in a place like Hollywood. He states that if you go bankrupt there you will get the cold shoulder immediately. For him money is an artistic accomplishment. He felt that if you stay true to what you do the money would come. As for buying happiness he is sure that becoming rich does not mean that all your problems will end. Frank believes that it is better to be wealthy and miserable than poor and miserable, because no one suffers like the poor. Money can buy you things to surround yourself. You can create an environment but happiness comes with spirituality.
The next guest is Vivien Nicholson, a shellshock winner of a football pools jackpot. A national lottery promised a weekly cash jackpot of up to 5 million pounds cash jackpot – twice the amount ever paid out on the football pools. Vivien and her husband won 152,000 pounds (equivalent to 1.5 million pounds). After she had won the lottery he life turned upside down. Vivien admits that she loves to spend money. She used to buy a car every six months, have a wardrobe, wear 14 pairs of shoes and she and her husband went on a tour around the world. They were extremely extravagant but Vivien had ban luck in the middle – her husband got killed. Now she has no money but if she had the chance to do it all over again she certainly would spend it again – that was well worth it.
We see Peter Cosine, adviser on the staff of Littlewoods, a company advising people on investment, helping people who come into fortune to cope with it. He gives advice not just on how to spend but how to save money. Big money is always a total change of life and big shock. Big money is a burden and responsibility. Peter Cusine is convinced that it is up to an individual to spend money in the way they want to.
Finally, this thought-provoking show welcomes Lord Bradford, Earl of Bradford and a representative of the so-called impoverished aristocracy. For aristocracy the title you have inherited becomes more of a curse than a blessing. Lord Bradford together with the estate has inherited enormous debts – to the tune of 8 million pounds. During the discussion he expresses his humble opinion that it is vulgar to talk about having much money, boast about it and discuss one’s salary with strangers and it is considered to be a sign of bad manners in Britain. It is like Sunday Times list of the rich – there are some people who want to be on it, some who do not, some who complain when their wealth is underestimated or overestimated. All sorts of people have different attitudes. But Paul Getty, an American multimillionaire, actually said that if you don’t know how wealthy you were, you could not be very wealthy. Attitude to new money in the society has changed drastically – it is not so snobbish and intolerant any longer.
The programme surely provides some food for thought and Gloria Hunniford triumphs, her audience as well it seems, over the fact that she managed to get so many different opinions and attitudes about money, this really burning issue that can definitely create a hole in the pocket. The question mentioned at the beginning has been answered in many different ways. One can draw the conclusion from the show, for instance that it is not actually money that makes people happy or unhappy, but the attitude to it and to life in general. Becoming a millionaire – helpful in achieving your goal or paranoia on the other hand. To me, the message of the show is clear as a day – everyone can earn a lot of money, provided you work hard but should this be the focus of your attention?