| I agree with you wholeheartedly. Also, key point:
> Spend some time traveling the world, head to some developing countries outside of your consumer driven world. Traveling is a luxury that many people cannot afford - it requires a ton of money. You're telling me to save up money, then to spend it, to go to a place where I realize I won't need money? How do you tell a poor person with financial troubles - don't worry just travel and you'll see you don't actually need money? People who say, "Money does not affect happiness" usually come from a place of privilege - i.e. they already have money and have their basic needs met, so they've never /really/ had to worry about money. If you're a single mother of three kids in a minimum wage job, then money definitely affects your happiness. |
From the article, it sounds like Loggan is exactly that. Never complains. Never asked for a promotion. Content with what he has.
“He could retire now,” said Javon Chambers, his grandson, himself a Walker Bros. busser for 15 years. “He’s financially straight and everything. I just think he knows when people retire, they die. That’s what he’s said: Old people don’t have nothing to do, they see their friends retire, and then they retire, and that’s when they die of boredom too. It’s like people who are married a long time — if one dies, the next goes right after. That’s like my grandfather and this place. He doesn’t want the will inside him to dry up.”
Ambition, in a time of low expectations, in a country defined by inequality, can mean holding on to what you have, internalizing your place in the world. “I think Loggan wanted to fit in somewhere,” said chef Pat Levy, also known as “Popeye”; he has worked at the restaurant 42 years, arriving in Chicago from Jamaica. “I think Loggan just decided to be a busboy. He is content. It’s all he wants. So I ask — isn’t that OK?”
For instance, the company took out life insurance on Loggan (payable to his wife); Ray says that for years he’s set aside about $50 a month for Loggan, as an informal retirement fund (subject to a 30 percent penalty for early withdrawal).