Envy is a bitch.

I was reading a left wing blogger's column about school vouchers and one of the commenters pointed out that rich people might use the vouchers, and this wouldn't be fair, and that their kids could go to really great schools, etc, etc. Whine, bitch, moan. Damn people even before they've commited an offense. I know a lot of poor people that cheat and send their kids to schools in other districts and lie about their address to get a better education for their kids. My dad did that for me for a while until I got caught. I wasn't a good enough liar.

I am not sure how good schools can get, there is probably a finite limit, and then there is also a natural limit to how much a kid can learn, due to his own mental capacities, or lack thereof. I don't think this would create a race of rich, super kids. I mean, Paris Hilton obviously went to the best schools, and sweet though the dear girl is, she isn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier. She has other natural "talents" that some poor girls share too.

So, anyway, to get to my point, it seems to me that the major problem in this world is that people spend an inordinant amount of time worrying that someone else might get something that they themselves wont get. They do this even if they don't really want what the other person is getting. I have noticed this around my office where when one person gets a footstool, suddenly everyone else is up in arms and they whine til they get one, and a week later there are 20 footstools in the closet cause it's hard to work with your feet up on one. They stuck me in a cubicle against my will, kicking and screaming and using all the Liberal victim mentality I could fake. I went to the employee counseler and tried to make it seem as if it was bad for my mental and physical health.

You can see from the pic below I had a great window seat. Other than watching the homeless defecate outside the window periodically, I had a great gig going. Some people that were antisocial wanted cubicles and got them. Jealous people started bitching that they wanted one too, and that they never give us anything nice, and as a consequence my ass is stuck looking at grey cubicle walls all day.

I think that if they invented a drug that eliminated envy, it might be a good thing. It's no skin off my back if rich people use a voucher. People should stop caring so much about what other people do. If they enjoy high fat food let them eat it, it's a sensual pleasure, let them have it. If they have a lot of money let them spend it. I remember when some female tennis players were jealous of the money Anna Kournikova made from her looks and Martina Navrotilova said, "The money is there for her, it's not there for you!"

I read a great journal of a man that came to California by wagon train, The Journals and Drawings of J. Goldsborough Bruff. The book was recommended reading by Theodora Kroeber in her book Ishi. She said if you wanted to understand the hardened mentality of some of the people that came over in the wagon trains, Bruff's journal was great reading. Mr Bruff said that one Scandinavian guy couldn't carry his tools through the Sierra's, and rather than leaving them for others he smashed them to pieces. Mr Bruff asked him why was doing that and he replied, "Because if I can't use them, then nobody else is going to have the use of them either!" Human beings are strange. Be happy for other people and worry about your own damn self. As Tevya said in Fiddler on the Roof, "It's no shame to be poor, but it's no great honor either!"