The Almighty’s Bottomline

​Most Americans are familiar with the expressions “The Almighty Dollar” and its first cousin, “The Almighty Bottomline.” These two expressions, which use the term otherwise associated with Divinity, ironically suggest that money and its accumulation, the more the better, are the chief values of our country. Calvin Coolidge’s well-known saying comes to mind: “The business of this country is business” or the common expression--“Money makes the world go round.” My mother, who became an adult during the Great Depression, liked to impress on me these twin dicta: “Rich or poor, it’s nice to have money” and “It’s as easy to marry a rich girl as a poor one.” For better or worse, I wasn’t impressed by the first saying and never experienced the second...

As someone who has lived for significant periods in two social democracies, Germany and Denmark, my life values and goals have never been toward the accumulation of wealth. Or rather, as a person who is both spiritual and religious per the current designations, I’ve always thought it important to add an apostrophe-ess to the two initial sayings. Sure, it’s clearly important to have enough funds to maintain good health and to support one’s family. Living in poverty is in no way to be desired. But the questions are, how much is enough and what are we using our funds for? Mahatma Gandhi, when asked how individuals should live, replied, “We should decrease our wants and fulfill our needs.” Few are probably able to do these things perfectly. I certainly can’t, as my sweet tooth will bear testimony. Still, we can make efforts. Several of my practices are (1) to buy most of my clothes and some of my household goods from resale shops and (2) to pay my bills from income and not use credit cards. Another is to avoid moving. As Ben Franklin said, three moves equal one house fire.

So, what do I mean by the Almighty’s Bottomline? It is to seek out what I am supposed to be doing in this life. Job one for me is thus to find out who my B-and-B self is, that is, my BIGGEST-AND-BEST SELF, and then, assuming even partial success, to live into that person. I believe that each of us comes hard-wired with a set of personal how-to-use instructions. The issue is to find them, read them, and strive to carry them out. Another Divine Bottomline for me as a Jewish-Christian is to try to the best of my ability to follow Jesus’ two great Commandments: Love God and Love one’s neighbor. Doing those things even imperfectly, I feel, beats the American Dream, actually a nightmare, of accumulating millions or billions of dollars.
What do you think?

The Almighty Dollar and its golden worshipers