Re: Ellison on Loserhood

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From: Jeff Bone (jbone@jump.net)
Date: Mon Aug 14 2000 - 21:38:48 PDT


More Dave-n-Bustering:

> Apparently, Dave sez:
>
> > > If so, there's more to life than having lots of money, Larry.

...yeah, there's all the wild-ass life experiences that having a loose billion or
two can buy, that us normal mortals can't dream of, like:

The man has enough money to buy a MiG, for crissakes. Those damn fussy bureaucrats
at the BATF and assorted accomplice agencies wouldn't let him, but let's ponder
that for a second: imagine nighttime flying, NATE over water, busting mach 2.
Wow. *That's* life.

If Larry wanted to take a week off and visit Mir, he could do it, no problem.
*That's* life.

Consider this: if Larry, Bill, the 3 Steves, and Ross were each to kitty in less
than 5% of each's net worth, we could fund a private-sector manned mission to Mars
in less than a decade. *That's* life.

Consider this: Larry wants to land his private jet at San Jose after the 11pm
curfew. Fine is $10k. He just goes ahead and does it, pays the fine. *That's*
life.

For that matter, I imagine that a paltry $1B can buy just about as much "music,
mathematics, philosophy, theater, and sex, drugs and rock and roll" as one person
can assimilate.

There's a great apocryphal story about Elvis, who while not on the same scale of
wealthy as, say, Larry, was still pretty wealthy in his own right. Elvis liked
sandwiches. He and some buddies were sitting around Graceland one night, and one
of the guys was describing this sandwich he'd had in Colorado somewhere, let's say
Denver. Elvis says "That sounds pretty good. Let's go get some." So they hop in
the jet, fly to Denver, and *don't even get out of the plane.* They have the
sandwiches brought to them on the plane, and then they take off and eat their
sandwiches on the way back. *That's* a kind of living I can only imagine and grin
myself silly about.

I dunno, 'cuz I clearly don't have that kind of cash, but I suspect that only
people who don't have lots money say "there's more to life than having lots of
money." One reasonably good definition of "life" in my book is, basically,
"freedom." And having the dough gets you the goods in that respect.

Just some thoughts about having lots of money,

jb


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