On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 9:02 PM, Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au> wrote:
So when most people are craven cowards only the contrarians are brave?
No I don't think that making status displays (or meta status-displays) is related to being courageous. My point was that there are many ways of status whoring and no-one is immune from the temptation. You might consider rereading the article.
$200K would be <long calculation>
This was only an anecdote and I have no aspiration to be awarded "pedant of the month" but whatever... I had translated 1975 dollars to present equivalents for the convenience of readers; this happened back when I lived in the country. in those days governments were less concerned about "money laundering" and you could readily get $50 notes, the equivalent of $300 now. The $100 note did not even exist at the time. The $200,000 is the 2014 equivalent of $30,000 in 1975. This was 600 notes or slightly over 1 ream. Quite doable in two overcoat pockets. My informant told me he saw this chap pay the deposit on a substantial farm with cash taken from his overcoat pockets.
When someone who is wealthy is unable to perform basic self-care tasks such as cleaning their clothes then mental illness is the most likely explanation.
I knew someone who worked for him and he did not notice any signs of mental illness. I'm not sure that failure to comply with white collar standards of "personal hygiene" is a very strong sign of mental illness. Inability to do so might be, but I have no evidence he was actually unable to care for himself. He seemed to be able to run very successful farming enterprises. In the farming community we ran into quite a few people who were unusual characters. Some were dysfunctional, others were not. Tim