How Fortunate the Man With None

Obā-san

You saw sagacious Solomon
You know what came of him,
To him complexities seemed plain.
It's wisdom that had brought him to this state.
How fortunate the man with none.

You saw courageous Caesar next
You know what he became.
They deified him in his life
Then had him murdered just the same.
And as they raised the fatal knife
How loud he cried: you too my son!
The world however did not wait
But soon observed what followed on.
It's courage that had brought him to that state.
How fortunate the man with none.

Obā-san

You heard of honest Socrates
The man who never lied:
They weren't so grateful as you'd think
Instead the rulers fixed to have him tried
And handed him the poisoned drink.
How honest was the people's noble son.
The world however did not wait
But soon observed what followed on.
It's honesty that brought him to that state.
How fortunate the man with none.

Here you can see respectable folk
Keeping to God's own laws.
So far he hasn't taken heed.
You who sit safe and warm indoors
Help to relieve our bitter need.
How virtuously we had begun.
The world however did not wait
But soon observed what followed on.
It's fear of god that brought us to that state.
How fortunate the man with none. 

Justice4243

I read the title as "How fortunate the man with no name.

Solomon seems a tad out of place. He basically achieved every thing a man could dream of and decided that it was somewhat meaningless given he was just going to die, anyway. He declared that faith in God was really the only thing worth a damn. 

Doesn't necessarily mean he felt he would have been better off without such things.

Gelzo

Justice4243

I've heard interesting things about wealth.

I've heard getting to rich just means you have more to worry about.

On the one hand, what she says is right about upper-middle class. It just seems money doesn't make you much happier past that point, or at least, there's diminished returns. Still, it seems have a respectable amount of cash is better than no cash.

Though, I've met some pretty happy looking hobos...of course, a great deal of that could have been booze or the thought that they where about to get drunk...

Icalasari

Money can't buy happiness, but it does a damn good job at renting it :D

Ace Rimmer

I read somewhere that happiness and wealth increase together until the person is taking home £25,000 per year, after that point, wealth seems to have less and less of affect on people's happiness.

Imipolex G

I read something similar, except with it being 50,000 American dollars.

ProfessorGator

Is this just one person supporting themselves or someone supporting a 4-person family?

Because both both £25,000 (which is about $40,000 in the US) and $50,000 are fairly comfortable yearly salaries for one person. But for an entire family, I think $40,000 would actually fall a little under the poverty line.

Justice4243

Heh, I read it was about $75,000.

Though, £25,000 is about $50,000, depending on how well the British pound and American dollar are doing in the international markets.

I think the idea is that money does a good job at "renting" happiness up to the point where you can easily fill a pyramid of needs (with the parts that can be bought).

From there on, money mostly just buys luxury items, which while these contribute to one's overall happiness, just not with the impact of meeting one's basic needs.

Is this just one person supporting themselves or someone supporting a 4-person family?

I would assume one person, as the amount would be a few thousand dollars over the national average, but yeah, doesn't really work to support multiple people.

I'd imagine my $75,000 figure would be closer to working for most families.