Who wants to be a millionaire? The answer is practically everybody. Who wouldn’t want a life of financial ease in which every need was affordable? But since the vast majority of us will never achieve this blessed state, we try to persuade ourselves that it is not such a happy one. When people believed in God, they could take comfort in the prospect of a happy afterlife. But now they must convince themselves that here on this earth they are no less content than the very rich.
Unfortunately, this is not easy. We know that great wealth doesn’t necessarily bring contentment — the tragic case of Eva Rausing is a recent example — but most of us feel that we would know how to handle it, that we would spend our money wisely and generously, and that we would stay the same decent, level-headed people that we have always been. So try as we may to pity the rich, we usually find ourselves envying them.
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