You want someone who is honest, transparent and trustworthy…so you nominate a pathological liar who has taken both sides of every issue and who refuses to release his tax forms.

You want someone to “shake up the system” and make government work for the common people…so you support a billionaire (born as an elite) who has abused both the political and court systems for decades, pays off elected officials and sues those who can’t afford court cases, all to make an extra few bucks…which he does not pay taxes on. Should we also put a mafia don in charge of the FBI?

You want someone who will fight large corporations and the rich…so nominate one of them? A man who does not even give to his own charity (and uses it to buy paintings of himself).

You want someone who can unite the nation…so nominate a man who insults groups and individuals 24/7. A man who takes every criticism or disagreement as a personal attack that must be defended. A man who will never apologize. Ever.

You want to make America “great” again…so you nominate a bigoted misogynistic narcissist who belongs on the set of “Mad Men” (this one actually makes sense if you are a white male with money).

You want someone who will keep us out of war, so let’s elect a man who would answer insults with military action, who wants to torture women and children and expand torture in general, a man who claims to know more than our generals but yet knows nothing about strategy or tactics (and throws out names like Patton and MacArthur with no idea of historic details), a man who wants to expand the availability of nuclear weapons, who casts doubt in the minds of our allies and joy in the hearts of our enemies, a man whose speeches are used to recruit terrorists, etc…I could go on for pages.

If you want someone to make life better for rich white men in this country, return us to a time when white males did not have to share power, a world where it is OK to make racist and sexist comments, a world where violence is an acceptable solution to use against those who disagree with you, a world where it is OK to cheat the system, a world where women were treated like cattle and sexual conquests, a world where America is feared (but not respected)…then Trump is your guy.

At what point do you realize that money means nothing and time means everything?

Like water on Arrakis, it doesn’t matter how much spice you have if you are dead from dehydration in the middle of a desert. Every hour of every day is all you have. If you are working at a job you hate, for a boss or company you don’t respect, and every day is causing you emotional pain and physical stress that is stifling you, sacrificing other projects (or worse yet harming your relationships), making you a different person (or harming your health), all for what? You are trading your most precious resource for money. You are trading time now for time later that you hope to have (but may not), which is understandable…but how do you measure that exchange? What amount is ‘worth it’?

Any job that is causing enough pain to impact your health long-term is probably not worth doing at any exchange rate. If you are offered $1M to jump off a cliff, that is obviously not a good deal. If you are offered $1M to do something illegal that could land you in jail for life, that is a risk that is probably not worth it (but would also depend on your other options). Is $100K to sit in an office all day for a year worth it?

If I am making enough in one day to have 5 days of freedom later, that is certainly worth it (at least for some amount of time). If I am only making enough for one day, then obviously that is not a good deal as my future day is not guaranteed (and the quality of life may be diminished).

What is the tipping point? The key is to get expenses as low as possible to maximize future value of each dollar earned. How much do you need?

Some kind of formula….current magnitude of pain/time vs future time/current dollars based on how much money one needs now and can save factoring future expenses. The older one gets, the more diminished and speculative the future time becomes, so there is a slope involved.