There is something embarrassing about money. Everybody is seeking it
but at the same time they are reluctant to talk about their bank balances
and stock holdings. As a society we have so much of it that we can install
7000 saffron curtains all over Central Park, send tourists into outer
space, and analyze the gas on the surface of Titan, yet we fail to spend
it on millions of poverty-stricken people who die of disease or starvation
each year. We do open our pocketbooks sometimes, but only when television
images of massive destruction overwhelm our sensibilities. Money often
dominates our consciousness and bombards us in the headlines: Our national
debt is 7.7 trillion dollars and it's increasing by more than 2
billion dollars a day; corporate executives of Enron walk away with
millions while their employees lose their jobs and their pensions; and we
had an endless fascination with Martha Stewart, who is worth millions, but
went to jail trying to save a few thousand.