By almost any definition ”” except his own and perhaps those of his neighbors here in Silicon Valley ”” Hal Steger has made it.
Mr. Steger, 51, a self-described geek, has banked more than $2 million. The $1.3 million house he and his wife own on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean is paid off. The couple’s net worth of roughly $3.5 million places them in the top 2 percent of families in the United States.
Yet each day Mr. Steger continues to toil in what a colleague calls “the Silicon Valley salt mines,” working as a marketing executive for a technology start-up company, still striving for his big strike. Most mornings, he can be found at his desk by 7. He typically works 12 hours a day and logs an extra 10 hours over the weekend.
“I know people looking in from the outside will ask why someone like me keeps working so hard,” Mr. Steger says. “But a few million doesn’t go as far as it used to. Maybe in the ’70s, a few million bucks meant ”˜Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,’ or Richie Rich living in a big house with a butler. But not anymore.”
having just moved from Silicon Valley, I can tell you that it is the height of ridiculous (again)
Bob – on that you and I will agree.
Our society tells us there is never enough. I know a fairly wealthy person (she pays more in income tax than I make in a year). She keeps her investments in CDs and savings and bonds. Her “financial advisors” (read bank and investment sellers) can’t understand why she doesn’t take higher risks for higher returns. When she says “I have enough, I don’t want to be greedy” they don’t understand.
For many people, it is not about the money, but about the chase. When you ask what they want, the answer is “more.”
Greed is far too alive in our society today. I think I read something about that this past Sunday 🙂
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
‘Reichtum ist wie Seewasser: je mehr man trink, desto durstiger man wird.’
(Wealth is like seawater – the more you drink, the thirstier you get.)
-Arthur Schopenhauer
Two comments. One, there is nothing wrong with work. The article intimates that just because one has a certain sum or net worth, we should kick back and retire. I for one plan to continue to work productively as long as I am able. I have not found anything in the bible that advocates what we call retirement.
Second, time to trot out one of my favorite CS Lewis quotes:
. . . What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’–could be their own masters–invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history–money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery–the long, terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” –C. S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity
A local business owner damaged his Lamborghini while driving fast on narrow local roads. When he found out that he had to ship his damaged car back to Italy for repairs and that they would take a year to complete, he bought a second Lamborghini to bridge the gap.
In our area, business owners in his line of business are using foreign labor in their operations. This is an area where if you offer a decent pay scale, you will attract reliable non-foreign labor who are hard workers and reliable employees.
My question, to myself, is “Is this man able to buy a second Lamborghini because he has been able to drive the cost of labor down in his operation by hiring foreign labor?”
CharlesB,
There is work and then there is being a workaholic. Working 12 hour days consistently and an additional 10 hours over the weekend is not simply `work`. I work in marketing in a retirement home. The people who have the hardest time adjusting to retirement living – the ones who don`t have a clue what to do with themselves, get bored easily and cannot entertain themselves and truly need someone else to entertain them – are the ones who did nothing but work, at the expense of their families I might add. I am not suggesting the man in this article should kick back and retire at 51. I can say that if I were in his shoes (and I am so far from it that the thought is ludicrous to me), I would spend less time in the office and more time with my spouse, more time volunteering, more time with God. No one on his death bed says, `I wish I had spent more time in the office` or `Bring me all my awards and bank account books`.
allyHM – I agree 100%. I am definitely not a workaholic myself, probably a borderline clock-watcher. I’m out the door at 4:00 sharp most days. Lots of fun stuff to do. The wife and I enjoy our church activities, our home group, singing, golf, etc., but I intend to keep going as long as I am able to work at something. I like the routine, something to get up and get moving in the morning for, the added purpose, the relationships.
We are watching again what we have seen often, the institutionalizing of an excess such that it has become normalized. I’m not sure how many such adaptations there are are, but many. In the past, such attitudes as the one above would stir widespread hostility (as it has here) but his point will seem reasonable to many – some of whom I know – namely, that a million dollars doesn’t go far nowadays, and for an increasing number of Americans, this is gospel truth. Have you seen the numbers of multimillionaires in the US? If a million dollars isn’t enough, then it isn’t. Your need determines your necessity.
And so we have watched pet owners spend actual fortunes on their pets. In the past, these sums would have stirred horror because so many Americans have no health insurance at all. Not any more. Pet health insurance is commonplace.
Homosexuality was always marginal. Their excesses were well known and found undesirable. You know the answer here. The change in marriage is another case of such normalizing. Consider how shameful it used to be to go bankrupt, not once but over and over. It is now commonplace. The use of mind altering drugs was also marginalized and deplored. Consider where marijuana is now; it is a commonplace at all social events, the more upscale, the more polite to bring your own while the host provided better material. And TEC is an exhausting case of the normalization of extremes. They see what they are doing as mainline; they truly believe they speak the common tongue. And they may.In short, we are watching standards disappear so that no excess is excessive and there is no established core belief by which to measure this decay.
Orthodoxy seeks to reestablish this core, but it is on its heels because the human hunger to overstep margins, ignore limits, and indulge desires finds no counterpoise in orthodoxy since the core we seek to renew is itself fragmented. We see our enemies and know them, but we have no weapons we can use together, or dare to use.Indeed, we seem to have lost the courage to call them by their names. The excesses are normalized and effect us all, and we call synods.
The man cited above is not greedy, say what you will. He is merely stating a standard truth; a million doesn’t go as far as it used to, and a million is therefore not a lot of money. LM
My question, to myself, is “Is this man able to buy a second Lamborghini because he has been able to drive the cost of labor down in his operation by hiring foreign labor?â€
And is his second Lamborghini paid for by the difference between a living wage for his employees and what he actually pays them?
Ok so:
Wealth is bad, so we raise taxes
Obesity is on the rise so we ban trans-fat
Smoking is already banned in public buildings, and is now being banned in public parks and outdoor areas
Carbon emissions are bad, so SUV drivers are being targeted by eco-friendly groups as being bad as well.
Speaking out about illegal immigration is bad, and will get one targeted as ‘racisit’ and intolerant.
Christianity in the public square is seen as intolerant, especially if you actually live what you believe, so the ten commandments are being restricted from public view, and the Bible and religious speech from schools and prisons.
Orthodoxy in the Episcopal church is bad so the orthodox believers are called intolerant and are being forced to leave (but not with their property)
How much more until we say “Enough!”???