Saturday, August 09, 2008

Money To Buy Happiness

They bought the house and called in the contractor, to make a few small improvements. The house was old and needed a repair here and there, but they were living in the wealthiest suburb and the prestigious address more than made up for the cost of maintaining the structure.

The contractor scheduled the work and the project proceeded nicely, at least from his angle. Out of the blue, the homeowner asked that the bill be sent to a different address. To an apartment in a suburb closer to the city.

Only a few months after moving, the couple were getting divorced, he said, and he was going to pay for the work to be done and then the missus would have the house. Fair enough, and everyone presumed that the couple was having problems well before they moved in to their spacious home in the elite suburb.

Can we cut back, she asks as the divorce is finalized. I've been in and out of the hospital, undergoing treatment for cancer, and the expense of this project is too great of a burden. I have to sell the house as well.

When we heard that politician and ambulance-chaser John Edwards had cheated on his wife, and this while she was dealing with severe health issues, we weren't shocked. We'd seen it before, the wealthy, self-made man who dealt with his wife's critical needs by taking some "me" time. He worked hard to create that oasis amongst the well-heeled, and he doesn't want to deal with stress when he comes home from a hard day at the office. If the wife can't hold up her end of the bargain, she's gone.

Money doesn't buy happiness, but it can buy a lot of other things that pass for happiness. When you can afford to get what you want, you tend to go out and get it, and then you don't understand what all the fuss is about. It's easy to be a self-absorbed son of a bitch when you've got the funds to bankroll yourself.

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