Can't Buy Love

One thing we know for certain ... in the immortal words of the Beetles, "Money can't buy me love." Given. We're all agreed. Good.

But ... what else can't money buy? To look around today I would have to assume ... nearly nothing. Think about it. Is there a problem under the sun that can't be fixed with money? If there is, I don't know what it is.

According to NationMaster, the U.S. is 37th in spending on education. (Cuba is #1.) We're somewhere below Kenya and Slovenia and somewhere above Canada and Spain. Over and over we hear recently of education funding cuts due to state budget crises. Class sizes are climbing and it's hard for kids to get computers and kids don't seem very motivated to get educated. What will we do? Well, if you want to fix these problems, it's simple. The government needs to put more money towards education. Everyone knows that. How could you question it?

When the government finally recognized that the economy seemed to be in trouble, the answer was simple. Throw money at it. Whatever you do, don't let banks go under. Car companies in trouble? By all means, we can't let them fail. And they're still throwing money at the economy problem with the $800 billion "stimulus bill" and $3 billion on the "cash for clunkers" program. Who knows if these original measures will be enough? All we know is that throwing money at this problem ought to fix it.

One that is particularly disturbing to me is the whole problem of curing cancer or Alzheimer's. These are genuine problems. What to do? What to do? I know ... throw money at it! You see, if you throw enough money at it, science will be able to find things they haven't yet found simply for the lack of funds and everything will be cured. Donate now! With enough money, I guess, science can learn anything and solve everything.

And, of course, because the cost of living is too high, it is clearly necessary to raise the minimum wage because more money will fix that problem.

It seems there is very little that we won't raise funds for. There is a website for raising money for poor defenseless women who need breast augmentation for their self-esteem. (If you thought that link took you to the website, you don't know me very well.) Or how about this anti-drunk driving fundraiser where "tickets are $20 and include one drink with the admission price"? That's right ... the fundraiser for ending drunk driving was held in the Blue Martini Lounge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Seriously. Is there anything that money can't fix?

So ... if I suggest that a major problem with our educational system is that parents aren't parenting and kids aren't being disciplined, I would guess that enough money could fix that. (You see, a class full of, say, 35 well-behaved kids who are also learning at home is much easier to manage than today's classes of 20 wild kids with no learning outside those four walls.) If I thought that greed and self-centeredness was the primary cause of our nation's economic woes, I suppose we could start a fundraiser to fix that problem, right? And so it goes.

You see, I think that most of the problems we face today are problems with people, not finances. I understand that it takes money to do research, and I'm not saying we shouldn't support cancer research and all. Nor do I think that education should have its funds stripped away. I just think that we are all hinging way too much of our hopes on "sufficient funds" as if money is the answer to the problems that people have caused. Until people are fixed, it's my conviction that the cost of fixing problems will continue to rise while the problems don't go away.