The Root of All Evil - Enough vs Not Enough

Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.
~Erich Fromm~

I was thumbing through a magazine the other day and saw an article about a mansion that caught my attention.  It was beautiful to be sure but what tickled my 'need to know' gene (doesn't everyone have one of those?) was that the mansion had 168 rooms. Really? What does ANYONE need with that many rooms???  I've seen buildings with that many rooms before but they're usually called HOTELS.

Which is another thing I thought about - how many of those rooms were bedrooms?  Who has a family that big???  Even my highly prolific 3rd great-grandfather who fathered 19 children and wore out two young women in the process would have had a hard time filling up all those rooms.

Now here's my thinking - who needs a home with more than a kitchen, dining room, living room, family room, maybe an office or even two, a bedroom for husband and wife, one for each child and a bedroom for granddaughters and and another for grandsons when they come along.  This is assuming that the children will grow up, move out, marry, have children of their own and then come back to visit for holidays and other family gatherings.  People live in much smaller homes and do just fine so, again I ask: what does anyone need with 168 rooms???

Then I thought, what about money?  Who really NEEDS billions of dollars to survive?  I mean, seriously, how can you spend all that money and how many generations below you do you plan to support?

I've heard that Bryant Gumble has a gold plated toilet with a warming seat and sprays you with warm water after you've finished what you went there to do - and then it flushes itself.  That must have cost a pretty penny but then what does he do with the rest of his millions or billions?

I'm pretty sure that Donald Trump pays more for one suit than I spend on clothes for an entire year - for both me and my husband.  I can't imagine that kind of money.  I would guess that neither he nor his children will live long enough to spend all of his money even if they never make another dime.

It's not just individuals.  Think of the corporations that make hundreds of  millions of dollars in profits each year.  Yet they still want more!  Wouldn't it be amazing if the highly paid executives at the top cut THEIR salaries while increasing the salaries of those at the bottom?  I doubt that this is what those who are in favor of "sharing the wealth" meant but, hey, why not?  Would it really be financially hurtful if the Trumpster only made $50 million this year instead of his usual $60 million?  And that's just his salary.  I'm sure he earns more from investments.  Much more.

Oh my gosh, can you imagine the dent in the National Debt if every single multi-millionaire and billionaire donated just one tenth of their net worth to help pay it off?  What if they donated even less to food banks and homeless shelters?  Suppose they all allocated a small portion for education?

Yes, I know, none of this is reality.  There are flaws - LOTS of flaws - in what I've said but can't you just imagine it?  What if greed no longer existed?  I'm not suggesting that people and companies can't make a profit.  I'm just asking why does it has to be such a HUGE profit?

Money is NOT a God.  No good can come from worshipping it.