Money Does Not Motivate

With the meltdown of our economy, I've been mulling more about the merits of capitalism. I know that on a personal level, money has never motivated me to do my best. I select clients on the basis of whether their product has the potential to change the way we work and play, not how much they can pay me to get publicity about how they've built a better way for people to spend money on products they don't need.

It seems to me that people motivated by making money  like to make money so they can spend it on themselves. The NY Times is full of stories about ways Wall Street bankers and their ex-wives (today's Times reports about an ex-wife of Henry Kravis who spends fortunes decorating her many houses and those of her friends in the colors of blue and white) spend their fortunes. Once they have spent more on houses and transportation devices than they could possibly use (or even recall, as is the case with John McCain), they set up foundations to give it away for continuing glory and presence (like  Catherine and John T. MacArthur, whoever they were (capitalists, for sure) but whose names will be eternally associated with "genius" as long as their endowment holds out).

It's not that i'm anticapitalist, but money just doesn't motivate me to get out of bed, unless i don't have a bed. I suspect -- given the lack of enthusiasm most people have for their paying jobs compared with the energy they put into volunteer work and hobbies, or anything else that doesn't pay -- that most people are like me. It's seems like a basic truth about human nature that no one dares to talk about, because the entire capitalist system could fail.

But it's failing anyway, isn't it?

Comments

[zo]

I don't know, Sylvia ... you're like me —and a lot of people we know, I would imagine. But I was married to one of the Others. The businessmen, who embrace their work and don't know how to do anything else.