[xyzzyz]

And what exactly is your point? Obviously it's easier to be pretty if you were born pretty, but with money you can buy cosmetics and/or a surgery, and without money you're hopeless. Obviously you cannot just buy yourself into being a famous and respected actor, but you still will massively out-compete many competitors. Obviously it is possible to succeed without going to good schools, or having good teachers, but it's much, much harder.

I wasn't suggesting that money is always the best solution, but frequently it's a really good, or at least good enough one. More importantly, it's quite general solution that will get lots of your problems solved, which is not the case with being bankrupt famous actor.

[NathanRice]

It is true that if you were born hideously disfigured, money can get you out of that jam (to some degree, anyhow). I feel that the common thread here is that money can be a huge boon to those who are impaired in some way, and is nice to have in general, but there are rapid diminishing returns with regard to happiness. I agree with the sentiment that you should take care of yourself and provide for your loved ones, just don't lust after money for its own sake or neglect the finer things in life because of it.

My experience (having gone to a good school) is that the most valuable thing they have to offer is contacts. The actual education is vastly overrated. The bulk of my knowledge came from figuring out a problem I wanted to solve, then learning everything that was required to solve it.