Money

What is money? Originally it was supposed to be a medium of exchange assumed as a deferred payment. But I doubt how many will answer this if asked.

I am at a place where if counted the total worth of all the people around me (read as students in my campus) that they would have 10 years from hence would be tremendously large! And possibly their average will be much above what an average person would conceive as rich. I've heard people around me being obsessed with earning money and its comeuppances. Many of them. Probably they are that smart to amass a lot of it. They argue: who denies money is power? Money may be power but then is it happiness as is generally deemed to be? Happiness is a fastidious fish which can not be fished with money's bait.

Some of our mates have the idea that by having a lot of money they will have everything they want in life. One of my mates said today 'I am going to U.S. next year, I will have a lot of money, all the girls around me at my disposal, marry any girl of my choice. You will have nothing for you. What will you make with the meager you earn? You will not be able to satisfy your wife and children. How will you be able to make a family with that?' It was really upsetting to hear that. They think that with all the money they can satisfy themselves and in that hope continue on with the process. They generally assume that money brings happiness. But that argument is a spurious one. In fact miles short from reality. If you conduct an who-is-happy survey then probably it will show no correlation with money. 

The assumption that you will be happy when you have a lot of money is a flawed one. Has it ever been tried and tested? I mean have you ever heard anybody saying 'Look here, I have all the money I wanted. Now I am the happiest I can be. Lets call it a day.' The basis of the conclusion is only previous occurrences in counting which they have left out certain other contributing factors also. Most of the time it is just taken as a premise. What is usually forgotten with the power that money brings with it, it brings the power to mask you as happy. After they have yearned and earned for so long it is not apposite of wealthy men to not be happy. And because of this deep rooted flawed conviction that money brings happiness they are forced into an assumption of happiness which again acts as corroboration of the same fact for others. 

Obviously money is considered as a 'value' is our society and I am no sociopath. It's not bad to have money. Even I want money. Earning money is a value but fantasized and obsessed with it is not a good idea at all. May be someday I will also turn into money-obsessed social animal. But certainly I am not like one right now. I need only that much I need. Somehow I cannot appreciate the idea of having 'a lot of money'. What is that to which 'lot' refers to. Ideally a lot implies an interminable source. But in all ways that is unattainable. The key, according to me, is to strike a balance between your needs and your wants. Otherwise, like I said, the ends are open.