Wu Jun - My View of Money (Part 1)

Lu Xun said that people want to survive, to feed and feed, and to develop, and then he specifically explained: "My so-called survival is not to live; the so-called food and clothing is not luxury; the so-called development is not indulgence." "Lu Xun is a very real person, he never pretends to be high, and the material life that should be enjoyed is still enjoyed."

Lu Xun's income was quite high according to the price level at that time. He was working in the Ministry of Education at the time, and his monthly salary was 300 oceans, and the minimum living expenses for Beijing citizens at that time were two or three oceans per month. Mao Zedong worked as an administrator in the Peking University library and earned 8 yuan a month. In the early years of the Republic of China, Pei's uncle bought the Suzhou Lion Forest, so large a garden, the price is only 9,000 silver, about 12,000 pieces of ocean, equivalent to Lu Xun's salary for more than three years.

In addition, Lu Xun's writing fees and lecture fees are also quite large. Incidentally, Lu Xun lectured part-time at Peking University and was not a formal faculty member, and the title of this kind of external person at that time was lecturer. Today, some people at Peking University say at every turn that Lu Xun did not become a professor at Peking University in those years, in order to show how bullish Peking University was in those years. The person who said this should be ashamed because he himself did not know the history of Peking University.

Lu Xun did not do it because he was a member of the Ministry of Education, not because he could not be, and Peking University did not have the title of visiting professor as it does today. If Lu Xun really can't be a professor at Peking University by virtue of his level, this is not Lu Xun's shame, but the shame of Peking University, because his level of professorship is not as good as that of a person who has not been promoted. These are digressions.

Lu Xun also has a characteristic, on the one hand, he takes the money of the National Government, on the other hand, he also scolds the National Government. Lu Xun himself said that the rice bowl can be separated from the ideal. Many of us young people today talk about future ideals at every turn, quit their jobs, and then make nothing out of the circle, and then run back to their parents to eat the old. I've even seen a guy go and "nibble" a low-paid girlfriend and don't know what to say about him. In 2016, I persuaded a lot of people who wanted to start a business to go back to work because I felt like they weren't ready, not only mentally, but materially.

The famous Norwegian playwright Ibsen wrote a famous play "Doll's House", in which the heroine Nala has been living under the traditional marriage system, and the relationship with her husband is very unequal, and finally she woke up and finally ran away from home to start her new life. Almost everyone who finishes reading the play will praise Nala's rebellious spirit of pursuing freedom and equality. Feminist activists were even more impressed by her. However, Lu Xun's view was different, and he wrote the article "What Happens After Nala Left". Lu Xun wrote:

But after leaving, sometimes it is inevitable to fall or come back. Otherwise, we have to ask: What else did she bring with her besides her awakened heart? If there was only a scarf with a purple-red velvet rope like that of the kings, it would be completely useless, whether it was two or three feet wide.

She also had to be richer, and there was preparation in her bag, to put it bluntly, to be rich.

Dreams are good; otherwise, money matters.

The word money is hard to hear, or to be laughed at by noble gentlemen, but I always feel that people talk about not only yesterday and today, but even before and after meals, there are often some differences. Whoever admits that he needs money to buy food, and who thinks that money is despicable, if he can press his stomach, there will always be fish and meat that have not been digested, and he must be hungry for a day before he listens to him again.

So for Nala, money ,—— elegantly said, that is, the economy, is the most important. Freedom is not something money can buy, but it can be sold for money.

Lu Xun is a person I admire very much, and I quite agree with some of his views on the attitude of material life. That said, I agree that "no money is impossible". Young people who strive for their ideals should not naively think that as long as they put themselves to death, they can live another life because they see that many people have resigned or dropped out of school and become rich.

The reality is that most of the cases are dead after being put to death. Many people, especially the media, over-exaggerate the story of dropping out of school and starting a business in order to make a sensation, but they often deliberately reverse the causal relationship. Gates, Page, Brin, and Zuckerberg were able to succeed by dropping out of school because they found a way to make money and then dropped out, not the other way around.

Today, though, I'd rather talk about the attitude towards money than the importance of money to our lives. If I could summarize my view of money in a few simple words, I could summarize it in five sentences.

1. Money is in your possession, not to you, and you have to return it to Him.

2. The money is only yours when it is spent!

3. Money and anything is meant to make your life better, not to cause you trouble.

4. Money is earned, not saved, and the efficiency of earning money depends on one's temperament.

5. Money cannot be spent, but it can be quickly invested (speculatively) and invested.

Due to the limited time, let's talk about the first point today, and we will continue to talk about the rest tomorrow.

Many people work very hard in their lives, especially in the first half of their lives, work hard to earn money in their own ability, and often give up everything in order to earn money, such as their health, family, friendship and happiness. But they didn't figure out one thing, and that is that there is a price to everything in the world, and the same is true for making money. For those who are able to leave a huge inheritance, the final money has only three places to go:

1. Spend it before you die, and if you don't spend it, you will waste it;

2. Give it to a state department or charity like Uncle Sam (There is no inheritance tax in China now, but that doesn't mean there won't be in the future);

3. Leave it to others, including future generations, and there is no fourth place to go.

Ancient emperors put too many burial items in the tomb, except to "encourage" the tomb robbery, there is no benefit, but the European king or celebrity buried in the church with a simple sarcophagus, to rest in peace. Money is something that God will lend to everyone and let everyone spend it, and he will take it if he can't spend it. Many people think that giving children will make him live well, this matter has to be said twice, Zhu Yuanzhang must not have imagined that his descendants will issue a sigh of "wishing to live in the next life and not to give birth to the imperial family". More than a hundred years ago, many super-rich people in the United States found that leaving too much money for their children hurt them.

Many people earn money that has not even been returned to God until they die. There is a saying in the current society, "The first half of life is exchanged for money, and the second half of life is exchanged for money", which is not bad at all. In the United States, medical care costs 17% of GDP (2014 data, source: World Bank), and Americans estimate that by 2020, this proportion will reach 20%. By contrast, Americans eat only 5 percent of GDP a year, which is much less.

In China, although there is no specific data, you can take a look at whether the elders today spend more money on food, or do they spend more money on medical treatment and medicine (including health care products)? I'm afraid the latter will cost a lot more. I see a lot of old people, in order to live two more weeks, spent their own life savings, if so, why not be more good to themselves when it is convenient for their own movements, or don't work so hard to earn money, cherish yourself a little. Similarly, many people do not spend time with their children in order to earn money, wait until the children rebel, fail to go to a good school, donate money to go through the back door, such money is just a hand in their own place.

Everyone's ability also has a limit, in this limit of effort, the effect will be better, beyond this limit, the efficiency will be greatly reduced. The same is true for making money, more than their own ability to earn money, even if there is a gain, the various costs will be too high, not cost-effective. Thinking about this clearly, people can live a more elegant life.

As a great literary hero, Lu Xun has lived a relatively dashing life in this life, although his life expectancy is not too long, but he has done everything he wants to do all his life, and his life is very colorful. In contrast, Balzac, who was also a great writer, published a large number of books in order to earn money, and worked day and night for 20 consecutive years. He went to bed at 6 o'clock every night, got up at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night, lit a candle, worked until the next morning, bathed and rested for a while at 7 o'clock, waited for the publisher to take the manuscript in the morning, and then worked until the afternoon, writing for 16 hours a day, completely supported by coffee, so that by the age of forty his body was completely collapsed.

Balzac was of course very prolific, and his large royalties allowed Balzac to live a luxurious and upper class life, but that life still made him unable to make ends meet, and then he had to work harder. I will not live such a life, and I do not recommend that you live it.

Finally, I wish you all a good time!