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Eating the Seed Corn
Can too much money be a curse?
The same year my grandparents (and surrogate parents) acquired a television, 1955, a show began called The Millionaire. The set-up was spoken into the camera at the beginning of each episode:
My name is Michael Anthony, and until his death just a few years ago, I was the executive secretary to the late John Beresford Tipton, Jr. John Beresford Tipton, a fabulously wealthy and fascinating man, whose many hobbies included his habit of giving away one million dollars, tax free, each week — to persons he had never even met.
Every week, money rained down on unsuspecting victims of every social station. More often than not, the gift became a curse.
This caused me not a little head-scratching. My grandparents lived in a house bought for cash with a settlement that came to my grandfather as a result of a disabling accident when he was working as a driller in the oil fields.
The house was not very substantial when built. There was no foundation and the brick columns that held it off the ground were not set in bedrock. As a result, the cracks between the walls and the floor and around the doors and windows got bigger over the years. The paint and the roof were worn out.
On the plus side, the house had an added bathroom with running water and the carpenter who added the bathroom…
