I spoke with a gentleman today who told me about a lady he once knew. She was a major investor in stocks, and over the years accumulated a net worth of ten million dollars.
The woman was a “penny pincher”. Her goal became the accumulation of even greater wealth. She could not enjoy and use what she had because of her zeal to get even more.
Sadly, the woman drowned. She didn’t get to enjoy the fruits of her labors. Those who survived her were the ones who got the benefits of she had gained during life.
Regardless of religious beliefs in the existence or lack of the “hereafter”, one thing remains certain—no one can take money and possessions beyond the grave or urn.
Wouldn’t I look funny going into Heaven with a tractor trailer or two of the contents of my house and home library? I wouldn’t look nearly as funny carrying my ready cash. Even a small shopping cart would hold all my ready cash, even if I liquidated all my possessions.
But the world’s economic system is based on the reality that no matter what humans have, they always want MORE. The thing that seems most ironic to me is that the greater the demand for a product, the higher the cost. It seems that since so much of a high-demand item is sold, the price should be less, as the manufacturer and merchant will sell so much and collect so much money.
Therein lies the rub—the more you want of what I’ve got, the more I’m going to charge you for it, so I can make more money, thereby accumulating more wealth.
How much is enough? Too much?
I recently went to purchase a land-line phone. I know I am a relic—most people have given up their land lines as cell phones are so widely used. Why do I keep mine? I have had that land line with the same phone number all my life. I suppose I’m just waiting for that special someone from the past to call me, and I want to be sure (s)he has my number.
I didn’t even know if I could find a land-line phone, but I found one at Wal*Mart, and I was amazed at how cheap it was in comparison with those electronic computers that cell phones have become!
I thought the land-line phone would be very expensive because they are rare, but it was exactly the opposite. The land-line was cheaper because so few people use them when compared with the vast number who pay hundreds and thousands of dollars for hand-held computerized phones.
When I was growing up, we had a black, rotary-dial land-line phone that hung on the wall in our living room, just behind the front door, between the door and a window. The receiver was attached to the phone with a long, twisted cord that always seemed to be tangled. I remember feeling so “modern” at around age nineteen when we got our first push-button, touch-tone phone. Perhaps I recognized that probably half of the people with phones already had push-buttons, but it was a new thing to me! I felt we had arrived.
Perhaps we had arrived, but the rest of the world was already moving on to something else perceived as greater.
What can I say? I was even born four days late for the fourth of July! Some things never seem to change.
For those of you, Dear Readers, who like to be on the cutting edge, who like to pilot new ideas, you are a trailblazer, and I applaud you. If you fail, I respect you as the guinea pig who spared me the agony you endured.

ANSWER TO QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 80
I went to a pet shop and bought 12 bees. Why did they give me 13? (ANSWER: The thirteenth was a free bee!)

QUESTION OF THE WEEK # 81
What was wrong with the joke about paper? (See the next “Mincey’s Musings” in historicunioncounty.com for the answer.)