They Can't Stop The Money Obsession

Some people are good at making money. Some people are great "wheeler-dealers," something I've never been good at. Some people just can't get money and making money out of their minds, EVER! A favorite television comedy of mine in the late 1960s was "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," starring Hope Lange, Edward Mulhare, and Charles Nelson Reilly.* The show was "based on" the 1940s movie with Rex Harrison and Gene Tierney. Reilly played Lange's nervous, money-loving, tightwad landlord. Even after all of these years, I still remember one episode where Reilly believes he will die within a few days. He has accumulated a substantial fortune, but with death staring him in the face, he decides to splurge on his funeral. When he goes to the funeral home to make all the arrangements for his own funeral, the undertaker is stunned to find Reilly willing to spend so lavishly. After making the initial plans, he asks what the bill will be. When the undertaker tells him the amount, Reilly's money-loving obsession kicks in, and he starts to make cuts. The cuts finally make the funeral less than most poor folks get.

There have always been people like Reilly's character and there always will be. I suppose they're insecure and afraid, deep inside. Remember Mr. Thurston Howell III, from the 1960s "Gilligan's Island?" While a multimillionaire, he needs his Teddy bear so he can sleep. The thing is, egos and insecurities have to have some control. For the last three + decades there has been all sorts of deregulation, permitting some of the most insecure and egotistical among us to ravage the country, in my opinion. Just look at how the income gap has grown during this time. Back when there was more regulation, the rich were still the rich, but there was some balance to the system, now...... Remember, they NEVER stop! It is up to us to put curbs on
them.

* A few years after "The Ghost And Mrs. Muir," Charles Nelson Reilly became a regular participant on the popular "Match Game," which had both a daytime and nighttime version. Years later Reilly publicly said he was gay.  

WORD HISTORY:
Funeral-The ultimate origins of this word are unknown, but it traces back to Latin "funus," which generally meant "funeral, burial service, death." This then produced Latin "funeralis," which meant "matters associated with a burial," which then gave Latin "funeralia," "the rites of burial." This gave French "funérailles," "funeral rites, funeral service." English borrowed the word from French in the mid 1400s.