These brief remarks are for those who’ve asked me to summarize the main themes in my book, What Your Money Means and How to Use It Well (Frank J. Hanna, III, Crossroad Publishing, 2008).


“Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail
And say there is no sin but to be rich;
And being rich, my virtue then shall be
To say there is no vice but beggary.”
Shakespeare
(1564–1616)


Shakespeare was wonderfully able to show us human nature as it is, parading before us vanity and pride, humility and integrity, lust and hypocrisy, and all the other virtues, vices, and quirks that make us who we are. In the passage above quoted from King John, the Bastard celebrates the myopia, deliberate or not, of those who have money or have it not.

In What Your Money Means, I believe I provided a pretty good explanation of the meaning of wealth. Hearing too well the song of the Bastard in King Lear, I wanted to ensure that I didn't fall unconsciously into the hypocrisy that the Bastard celebrates and so ably mocks.
For years that was one of my fears, a fear that became a major reason to undertake the investigation of which the book is the fruit.

It’s simply not right for those of us who are wealthy to take our wealth for granted. We’ve each of us got to confront the fact of our wealth and seek to discern its meaning, not only in our own lives but in the overall scheme of things.

Just as Socrates insisted that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” so I’m convinced that unexamined wealth is not worth having. Indeed, as will become evident here in the coming weeks, wealth can be downright dangerous — to those of us who have it and to those we love. With the stakes so high, it would be wrong of us to act like the Bastard and cavalierly defend it because we have it.

No.

Either we discover its meaning and live in accordance with that meaning, or rid ourselves of it, because, like fire, it will harm us if we don’t use it as it’s meant to be used and handle it as it needs to be handled.