How do you balance your spirituality with working in an industry dominated by money and materialism? –@rrdavies
First off, every industry is dominated by money and materialism. The guy that opened the ccorner deli wants to make a lot of money, wants to charge as much as possible, and wants to keep growing.
Money is a force that wants to grow. Money is a miracle innovation that abstracted us out of bartering for goods so that it would be much easier to obtain a higher quality of life.
Wall Street, when you strip away the Ponzi schemes, the guys who wants to corrupt it, the guys who take advantage of customers, the layers of bogus fees, etc. actually funds the companies that cure cancer, that cure heart disease, that creates ipads, and builds planes, makes cars, delivers furniture, etc. Charities don’t fund these things. The machine that Wall Street powers drives 100% of these things.
Because of a corrupt FDA it takes a billion dollars to get a cancer-curing drug approved. Where does that billion come from? Not the American Cancer Association. It usually comes from Wall Street. From the public exchanges where mutual funds, funded by you, can participate in IPOs and fundraisings. Then, if the drug actually does cure cancer: Wall Street wins, you win, the company wins, and people with cancer are cured.
Financial innovation by itself is not a bad thing. And money is not “un-spiritual”. It’s just a tool. Money lets you help people. Money can provide for health, home, education, food, etc. It’s good to make money. It’s good to help others make money.
Financial innovation becomes a negative in cycles. Housing became a boom. So “innovators” took advantage of that in various ways that led to complicated pieces of paper that brought down the entire banking system. Did Wall Street know what was happening? Of course! They were corrupt and greedy. When financial innovation runs ahead of itself, it needs to be slapped down. Or it needs to be punished until the greed calms itself down.
The best you can do in an industry dominated by greed is to not be greedy. To keep your spirituality. To realize when things are running too fast. To become a beacon to others that may need your light to see.
Not to run from it, accuse it, fight it, stop it. We still need that cure for cancer.