The following is an extract from an article written for The Huffington Post by Philip Slater, author of the book, The Chrysalis Effect. Do you agree with the views? (Special thanks to Joshua Chiang for recommending the article.)
The truth is, money has nothing to do with talent in any field. The biologist Lewis Thomas once said that the need to feel useful, to make a contribution, is fundamental to human beings. People crave challenges, like to exercise their abilities. They also like to eat. But our culture — or at least the least evolved elements of it — have distorted this need by using money as the only criterion of worth, which has elevated some of the least valuable members of society to the most valued. Huge sums of money attract only the most neurotic members of society — those who feel empty, who have nothing to give, who are sick with greed.
Read the full article here.
Read also: Greed run amok by Andrew Loh.
while its good idea to write such thingies,
i feel that its not wise write sweeping statement kinda article title.
allow me to explain.
1. its fundamentally flawed to say money DOES NOT Attract talent. The question is what kind of talent it attracts.
2. ‘it merely attracts greed’ : merely = only. that again is fundamentally flawed.
but message understooded. pardon me singlish. my englan not strong.
Paying high salaries are an insult to Singaporeans and also an insult to the ministers themselves.
Their justification is to “attract talent to stay in the government”. But methinks shouldn’t the desire to serve the country BE AN INTRINSIC (come from within) DESIRE? Shouldn’t one love the country so much, that one desires to make the country better?
So, if all the government can say is that paying big money will help retain talent, then we can all safely assume that the government DOES NOT WANT TO BE THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE, AND NEEDS MONEY TO KEEP THEM THERE.
Thus, the article holds true. Money attracts greedy talent. Talent indeed, but greedy nonetheless.
What the government is saying as a “reason” to justify their exorbitant salaries is “We must be paid market rates (exorbitant salaries) for us extreme talented governors to stay in our positions to help you citizens.”
Would any citizen allow this? I dare to say, almost none of the citizens would allow this. & yet, there’s not a thing we could do to stop the government from keeping them in position & siphoning lots of money, much to our annoyance.
This shows the government has ABSOLUTE control over the country & its people. & as Carlito would say, “That’s not cool.”
Since I was a boy, from stories told by teachers in school and from books that I have read about human history, great people (National Heroes, Statesmen, Scientists, Musicians, Artists, Sages and Saints) have never equate their contribution – which very often sacrificing their own lives – to how much they are worth (money). When I began to understand things as a teenager in the early 50s , I was inspired by the then “men in white” who championed for our struggle to free from British Colonial rule and a beacon of the working class to free them from Capitalist exploitation and oppression. Those were the days with men “really in white” who scarificed the prime period of their lives and even risked their lives for a more equal and just soeciety. They included those many brave souls who were detained without trial under the ISA and imprisoned for most part of their useful lives, with their beloved families ruined and themselves gone into exile. 50 years went by and here we see today “men in white” talking about how much they should be paid their worth commercially (market rate) so as to lead a nation which has prospered economically but so much poorer in ‘soul’ and humanity, a capitalist meritocracy far from the vision of the then “men rally in white” who wanted to build a more equal and just society.
#51 HUM on March 8th, 2009 9.12 am
1. its fundamentally flawed to say money DOES NOT Attract talent. The question is what kind of talent it attracts.
I agree with your post, as I am incline to take the view that people who are strongly motivated by money ie. minus that component, they will decline the job, are driven by the need for power, and the need to achieve over others.
Such people are focused solely on performance that benefits themself and their direct employer; often at the expense of the bigger community.
For these people, the wellbeing of others outside their exclusive circle are irrelevant.
This is an empirical fact from psychological researches.
Singapore is now a greedy society. Many Singaporeans are greedy. Why ? Because of the pap government greedy policies. They set the examples. They set the standard whereby everything is measured by the $. After 50 years of being ruled by a greedy iron-fist, those Singaporeans who are not greedy are a unique specie. Greed will destroy the whole Singapore society. The only people who can save it are the small unique number of greediless Singaporeans.
56) Harry, insatiable greed for money is a product of society evolution. It’s prevalent not just in Singapore, but in societies around the world. Human society has set the illusionary standard that wealth = success in life. Thus, mankind today blindly pursues money without even knowing their true reasons for doing it.
Does a person really need that much money? In the theory of yin-yang’s balance, when one man gets too rich, another man gets too poor due to unequal distribution.
What is the point of a governor whose role is to improve the lives of its citizens accumulating so much wealth despite being well-off enough already at the citizens’ expense?
The way to save humanity, especially dying ones due to poverty, is to dispel the illusions of blind greed & pursue for money caused by the evolution of society.
I have a feeling this will happen in a few centuries. In their time, people disagreed with Charles Darwin & Socrates. A few centuries later, humankind begins to see the light in their wisdom.
Quite obviously, I am blatantly wishing to be a great philosopher even if it’s after my death. I would rather lead a normal life now & be able to benefit mankind in the future even after my death with my philosophy than be rich & powerful now at the expense of others & be hated by mankind even after my death.
If I don’t have to pay over $200,000 for shelter (and yet still have to worry about it being reposessed anytime I’m unable to pay the exorbitant “maintenance fee” or when the managing body goes en-bloc happy), I think I would be quite happy with less money.
Money is just a means to get “stuff”. Some of those, like shelter, food, clothing, education, medical care, etc., are pretty much necessities. Can’t blame people for wanting more money when the price of these “stuff” are going inexorably up.
However, those who are already earning way more than enough to cover their basic needs (and have more than enough to last until the purchase of a coffin fall under the “need” category) should really know when enough is enough.
Paying over $200k (Average prices of flats have gone way higher than this) for shelter is absolutely ridiculous! Staying in a place with high cost of living is like a hunter in a war-torn land; it’s extremely hard for him to gather enough to feed himself & his family.
What’s so ironic is that this high difficulty in affording necessities is present even in a supposedly 1st world, developed country. A country’s success is not measured by a portion of its rich citizens, but by happiness & livelihood of all its citizens.
“Singapore is now a greedy society. Many Singaporeans are greedy. Why ? Because of the pap government greedy policies. They set the examples.”
hehehe, people learn fast these days and know where the double-standards are when they see them. let’s pray hard for the country.
There is much truth that money does not attract talent, it merely attracts greed.
And may I add that greed in turn attracts
men with no integrity,
men with little empathy for others,
men who are self serving,
men who are untrustworthy,
men with clouded vision,
and if put in place to manage a country, will do us in !
You have just written the philosophical truth.
Great thinking !
Bad things happen because good people do nothing to stop them.
Now, this article is timely and the comments wise. Good for you TOC – it restores my faith in this site a wee bit…