On Making Easy Money

Men make money in many ways. And making money⎯or at least making a living⎯is important. Everyone has to do it one way or another, either by his own efforts or by the efforts of others. But more important than merely making a living is making an honest living. Sometimes some men aren’t satisfied with an honest and ample living. Sometimes they want quick and easy affluence⎯and compromise themselves to get it, sometimes by means which are morally fraudulent, but which seem to be legally safe. But, as many a man has later learned, quite apart from moral issues, making money by false means is seldom legally safe, and those who do so have no quiet thoughts and no assurance of safety. While it may sound like soft idealism to say so, there are few greater hazards to happiness than money quickly and questionably acquired. Unethical acquisition, public or private pilfering, misuse of information or influence, betrayal of any trust, pursuit of any malpractice⎯all yield what they yield at great cost. And there is no ultimate good to those who come into possession of money to which they are not honestly entitled, by means which they would rather not mention. Of course, when we see money easily made by questionable means, we may sometimes wonder if we are missing something. But those who know they are missing what no man can afford to miss are those who lose the power to live at peace with their own thoughts and the right to be trusted by others. We quote in closing from words of the Psalmist, uttered many centuries since: “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass… Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass… A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.” There isn’t enough money in the world to pay for compromising principles, to pay for losing peace of mind, to pay for betrayal of a trust. There isn’t enough money in the world to make that kind of money worth having, no matter how much of it there is to be had.