Am I wrong for making Jeff Bezos richer? Am I like the addict who can’t stop buying from his supplier?
Or am I just taking advantage of easy ways to shop, staying mindless of my role in making Jeff richer? Should I fault him for giving me what I want: Seemingly unlimited choices with rapid, free delivery to my door? Should the poor (or poorer) fault the rich who provide them with what they want? Shouldn’t Jeff, who has provided jobs directly and indirectly to enough people to fill a small city, be given his due? As one of my late relatives once said, “When’s the last time a poor guy wrote you a check?” Jeff writes lots of checks, pays lots of people. I don't live in the same financial universe as someone who pays 800,000 employees.
But then there’s that envy thing that’s been around since forever. Someone has more stuff? Envy. And there’s the related emotion, jealousy, that emerges when a friend or loved one has given attention to or gotten attention from another. No wonder the planet is so green. It’s the common color of the envious and jealous that Iago describes as a monster. *
I don’t care that Jeff is rich. I don’t envy him. Would I like to be as rich as Croesus? Sure. But I’m not, and that I don’t have more wealth isn’t someone else’s fault. I didn’t come up with Jeff’s idea. And unlike Sam Walton, I didn’t expand a little Arkansas store into a giant big box retailer with about 2,000 stores and hundreds of thousands of employees, either. Why should I fault the founders of Amazon and Walmart for their successes? In a free market, I’m free to do what they did. And among the things I did was to purchase from Amazon and Walmart. Envy is a waste of energy. Follow Yoda’s advice here: “Do or do not.” Pretty simple, but an effective dismissal of envy.**
And yet, we’ll never rid ourselves of envy. Some will complain incessantly, wishing to be what others are and faulting them for being what they are. There’s a close parallel in Edwin Arlington Robinson’s poem “Miniver Cheevy.” ** In Miniver’s case, the envy is over the lives of knights in shining armor and the rich Medici. He believes he is born in a time when no one can have, as he calls it, “mediaeval grace.” Those who envy Jeff Bezos and the Waltons might think they were born too late to form successful companies and make inordinate wealth just as Miniver believes he was born too late to experience the heroism and grandeur of knights and the wealth of the Medici.
Just keep in mind those words of Yoda: "Do, or do not."
*There is a distinction between envy and jealousy that lies in the object: Typically, we associate envy with others’ possessions, talents, or status, whereas we associate jealousy with unfaithful lovers or with the attention given by those from whom we seek attention, as in the case of sibling rivalries. No doubt, you can think of other examples of jealousy. In Othello, Shakespeare has Iago say, "Beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster...."
**Is it a coincidence that Yoda, who displays no envy or jealousy, is green?
***Here’s the poem by Robinson:
Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,
Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;
He wept that he was ever born,
And he had reasons.
Miniver loved the days of old
When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;
The vision of a warrior bold
Would set him dancing.
Miniver sighed for what was not,
And dreamed, and rested from his labors;
He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot,
And Priam's neighbors.
Miniver mourned the ripe renown
That made so many a name so fragrant;
He mourned Romance, now on the town,
And Art, a vagrant.
Miniver loved the Medici,
Albeit he had never seen one;
He would have sinned incessantly
Could he have been one.
Miniver cursed the commonplace
And eyed a khaki suit with loathing;
He missed the mediæval grace
Of iron clothing.
Miniver scorned the gold he sought
But sore annoyed was he without it;
Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,
And thought about it.
Miniver Cheevy, born too late,
Scratched his head and kept on thinking;
Miniver coughed, and called it fate,
And kept on drinking.
Or am I just taking advantage of easy ways to shop, staying mindless of my role in making Jeff richer? Should I fault him for giving me what I want: Seemingly unlimited choices with rapid, free delivery to my door? Should the poor (or poorer) fault the rich who provide them with what they want? Shouldn’t Jeff, who has provided jobs directly and indirectly to enough people to fill a small city, be given his due? As one of my late relatives once said, “When’s the last time a poor guy wrote you a check?” Jeff writes lots of checks, pays lots of people. I don't live in the same financial universe as someone who pays 800,000 employees.
But then there’s that envy thing that’s been around since forever. Someone has more stuff? Envy. And there’s the related emotion, jealousy, that emerges when a friend or loved one has given attention to or gotten attention from another. No wonder the planet is so green. It’s the common color of the envious and jealous that Iago describes as a monster. *
I don’t care that Jeff is rich. I don’t envy him. Would I like to be as rich as Croesus? Sure. But I’m not, and that I don’t have more wealth isn’t someone else’s fault. I didn’t come up with Jeff’s idea. And unlike Sam Walton, I didn’t expand a little Arkansas store into a giant big box retailer with about 2,000 stores and hundreds of thousands of employees, either. Why should I fault the founders of Amazon and Walmart for their successes? In a free market, I’m free to do what they did. And among the things I did was to purchase from Amazon and Walmart. Envy is a waste of energy. Follow Yoda’s advice here: “Do or do not.” Pretty simple, but an effective dismissal of envy.**
And yet, we’ll never rid ourselves of envy. Some will complain incessantly, wishing to be what others are and faulting them for being what they are. There’s a close parallel in Edwin Arlington Robinson’s poem “Miniver Cheevy.” ** In Miniver’s case, the envy is over the lives of knights in shining armor and the rich Medici. He believes he is born in a time when no one can have, as he calls it, “mediaeval grace.” Those who envy Jeff Bezos and the Waltons might think they were born too late to form successful companies and make inordinate wealth just as Miniver believes he was born too late to experience the heroism and grandeur of knights and the wealth of the Medici.
Just keep in mind those words of Yoda: "Do, or do not."
*There is a distinction between envy and jealousy that lies in the object: Typically, we associate envy with others’ possessions, talents, or status, whereas we associate jealousy with unfaithful lovers or with the attention given by those from whom we seek attention, as in the case of sibling rivalries. No doubt, you can think of other examples of jealousy. In Othello, Shakespeare has Iago say, "Beware, my lord, of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster...."
**Is it a coincidence that Yoda, who displays no envy or jealousy, is green?
***Here’s the poem by Robinson:
Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,
Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;
He wept that he was ever born,
And he had reasons.
Miniver loved the days of old
When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;
The vision of a warrior bold
Would set him dancing.
Miniver sighed for what was not,
And dreamed, and rested from his labors;
He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot,
And Priam's neighbors.
Miniver mourned the ripe renown
That made so many a name so fragrant;
He mourned Romance, now on the town,
And Art, a vagrant.
Miniver loved the Medici,
Albeit he had never seen one;
He would have sinned incessantly
Could he have been one.
Miniver cursed the commonplace
And eyed a khaki suit with loathing;
He missed the mediæval grace
Of iron clothing.
Miniver scorned the gold he sought
But sore annoyed was he without it;
Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,
And thought about it.
Miniver Cheevy, born too late,
Scratched his head and kept on thinking;
Miniver coughed, and called it fate,
And kept on drinking.
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