by Spider » Mon Feb 10, 2014 6:54 pm
Whats interesting about this case is that sure, he didn't want the money. That's fine. Whatever floats his boat. The logical thing then is to take this money (money is not an evil or corrupting thing. Its potential for being used for doing good is exactly equal to its potential for doing evil) and put it to use in a positive way. Its a rare thing to have a large amount of money coming in but to genuinely not want it. Who knows how much he could have milked out of this and done amazing things with, or even given it away to someone else to do something proactive with.
There was a real opportunity to make a lasting improvement even in just his own community. Send some kids to college or something. Buy his parents a house. New playground. Something. Anything. But it was squandered.
There is nothing wrong with valuing money...because of course money is objectively valuable. It can open up doors that can make amazing changes in the lives of others, if we aren't interested in opening doors for ourselves. All this talk of money as if its somehow unclean as opposed to simply a quantifiable measure of a potential is self defeating.