All for the money

We accept, some with more resignation than others, that money is an inevitable part of our lives. And from what we know of our ancestors, before money existed, greed already existed. How much money do we need to live? How much money do we need to accumulate in life? How much money do we think we deserve to have? Why do we think we deserve anything?

With the arrest of Jonathan Andic, and without speculating on what really happened on that father-son outing, just following the information that has reached us and which is part of the police investigations, it is clear that the businessman's son is not satisfied with having been born into an overprivileged home or with an inheritance that for any of us is excessive and unthinkable. According to this information, the arguments between the two had to do with money. And with the fact that the son did not approve of how his father wanted to manage it. This issue, in much smaller quantities, occurs in many other families. There are children who feel they have the right to express an opinion on what should be done with the money their parents have earned. And some people find it hard to understand that parents prefer to spend the savings they have accumulated during their lifetime rather than leaving them to their heirs. Families break up, often, over an economic issue, whatever the amount they are dealing with. In most cases, the disputes are over miseries, although the threshold of misery is different for each person. In the case of large fortunes, as they are usually public figures, family discussions transcend and the rest of the world ends up finding out about them. Internally, we are glad that money does not bring them happiness. Screw them, we think. Perhaps we don't have greed, but we have envy. A little. And a little less when you watch the documentary Dynasty: The Murdochs, in which Rupert Murdoch's family, who seem to have been the basis for the series Succession, is full of sexism, distrust, and betrayals. How is it possible that people who have their economic lives extraordinarily resolved are so miserable and so unhappy? You feel a mix of pity and anger for their inability to enjoy life. Then you return to your life as a freelancer and forget about all those people. That's what quarterly taxes are like.

At the same time that we learned of Andic's arrest and his obsession with money, a judge from the National Court charged former Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero with influence peddling. The sound of the cash register in politics is also not new, but, as in Andic's case, we still don't know if he is guilty or not. The only thing we know is that both are clumsy with technology and that there are many people who put their hand in the fire and end up getting burned. But this is not a series or a novel. It is the greed that rears its head day after day in our lives. It is the endemic corruption of a country that, with judicial connivance, makes a random selection of thieves. It is the terrible feeling that we are in the hands of some crooks and some opportunists who make patriotism a very juicy way of life. But the question is what is wrong with all these people who don't have enough with the money they already have? Is there a treatment for this cumulative voracity?

Nothing suggests that corruption or greed will end in the world, quite the opposite. But it does make one think, and a lot, that a person can be capable of killing for money and that another can use an elected office to fill their pockets. It makes you think and makes us think.