我讀到一個笑話。

　　話說有位靚女在網上登廣告，招一個億萬老公。有天她收到一個回覆：「我有錢，你有美貌，這個交易聽起來似乎很公平，但我的財富每年都會增長，而你卻一年比一年老。我是『增值』資產，你是『貶值』資產。如果你只有美貌，那你便是一個不良的長線投資，因為你會一路貶值，在20年後更不值甚麼錢。作為一個明智投資者，都會選擇拋棄這項投資。親愛的，所有的億萬富豪都不傻......」雖然這故事很殘酷，卻是真理。

　　著名的釣金龜人辦有鄧文迪，嫁給比她大37歲的梅鐸；大衛‧芬尼斯為嫁給艾頓莊而中途「轉基」。已故名人Anna Nicole Smith ，24歲時嫁給87歲的石油大亨J. Howard Marshall。有人問，她們真的快樂嗎？如果在她們的世界中，物質享受就是一切的話，財富一定能令她們過得很快活。

　　是不是擁有財富就等於快樂？通常不是。以色列王所羅門是史上最富有的富豪之一，他擁有智慧、財富，更不缺女人——700個妻子和300個情婦，但他兩度尋死。美國名媛 Barbara Hutton 和 Christina Onasis，就像寶詠琴和龔如心一樣，晚年都是孤苦伶仃。著名護髮品牌歐萊雅的繼承人Liliane Bettencourt，和她的獨女Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers鬧翻......美國著名超市沃爾瑪公司創辦人山姆‧沃爾頓，他的兩個兒子羅布和吉姆反目成仇。阿道夫‧達斯勒和魯道夫‧達斯勒這兩兄弟，20年沒有和對方講話，而他們分別成立著名運動品牌Adidas和Puma，雖然兩者都很成功，試想如兩兄弟肯化敵聯盟，前途必然更甚。不少書和電影都有記載Gucci家族爭奪股權，將家人變成敵人的故事。

　　在我們的人生中，要經歷上學、考試、找份好工，然後努力工作求晉升，更有不少人要節衣縮食買車買樓。大家試想想，如果你是一個億萬富豪，沒有人可要求或強迫你上學上班，你想收購甚麼學校和企業都可以，從不用節衣縮食，更不用聽人說教，甚至準時起床！這樣你會快樂點嗎？可能不會，因為我們自己通過努力爭取回報，所獲得的滿足感是錢買不了的。揮霍的態度使任何東西都沒價值。不懂感恩滿足的心，會令人感到人生空虛乏味。

　　住在公屋、村屋或離島的人，大多很有團結精神，他們會互相照應，反而住在豪宅的有錢人，大多不認識他們的鄰居。在香港經濟未起飛前，很多小朋友喜歡在行人道上你追我逐，嬉戲大笑一番，他們愛玩彈波子、踢毽、跳繩和跳飛機等等，而現今的小朋友只愛上網玩電動遊戲，不與人溝通，這樣快樂嗎？

　　當然我們要滿足生活的基本條件，為自己和家人追求一定程度的優質生活。我想大家明白的是，生活中有很多比財富更重要的東西，不應盲目追求更好、更大、更快的物質享受。如果你認為找另一半時的基本條件，是對方擁有大量財富，請你三思。

　　（按：中文內容乃翻譯及撮寫版本）

Marrying For Money

　　I read a joke somewhere:

　　A beautiful woman advertised online that she was looking for a multi billionaire  husband. One replied, “ I am rich, you are beautiful, the deal sounds fair. But my wealth is increasing annually while you are growing older every year, therefore I am an appreciation and you, a depreciation asset. If beauty is all you’ve got, it’s a bad long term investment because it depreciates continuously and ain’t worth much in 20 years’ time .The only wise decision for any buyer is to dump it. Honey, anybody who is a billionaire is not a fool……” Crass perhaps, truthful nonetheless.

　　Outstanding stories about gold diggerism include Wendi Deng who married Rupert Murdoch, 37 years her senior… David Furnish who was said to have turned gay in order to marry Elton John… The 24 year old Anna Nicole Smith who married the 87 year old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall, with a staggering 63 year age difference. The question is, are they happy? Well, if material possessions mean everything to them, then having all that money would certainly make them deliriously happy.

　　Does mega wealth really equate happiness? More often than not, the opposite is true. King Solomon was one of the richest men in history, he had wisdom, wealth and women, 700 wives and 300 concubines to be exact... Yet he attempted suicide twice. Both Barbara Hutton and Christina Onasis were sorrowfully forlorn, as were Po Wing Kam and Nina Wang towards the end of their days. Liliane Schueller, heiress to the L'Oréal empire became estranged from her only child, Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers... Rob and Jim Walton, sons of Sam, founder of Walmart, engrossed in bitter fights ... Brothers Adi and Rudolf Dassler didn’t speak to each other for 20 years, they formed Adidas and Puma separately, both successful, but  imagine if they had joined force? Books and films have been written and produced about the colossal Gucci feud where money turned the entire family into arch enemies…

　　We have to get up, go to school, pass exams, get good jobs, then work very hard in order to advance our careers. We need to save up to buy a car or an apartment…Now imagine being a billionaire, neither required to go to school nor work, you can buy the school, the company, anything you want or don’t want…Never having to save…never having to be civilized to anybody, in fact you don’t even have to get out of bed ! Would you be happier? Probably not, there is this tremendous sense of satisfaction in earning something after a struggle which mega wealth does not offer. Squandering renders a prize without value. This lack of gratification or purpose eventually creates a void, a sense of emptiness.

　　People living in government housing, villages or off shore islands have a much stronger sense of community, they look out for each other…people in luxurious high rises don’t know their neighbors. In Hong Kong’s poorer days, children were seen playing and giggling on the pavements, shooting marbles, playing hacky sack, rope jumping, hopscotch, mini rice bags…today we are so affluent our kids play video games or surf the web alone, not speaking to anybody. Are we happier?

　　Of course the fundamentals in life have to be right and we all aspire to achieve a certain level of comfort for ourselves and our families. The ultimate wisdom is to realize that there are more important values in life than relentlessly pushing for better, bigger, faster, more. If you choose wealth as the primary criteria in finding a spouse, it may be worth your while to think again.