Saturday, December 16, 2006

When Money Isn't Everything, Wall Street Gets Upset

New York Times: "Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, caused lots of head-scratching Thursday as he tried to explain to a bunch of Wall Street types why his company is not interested in “monetizing” his ridiculously popular Web operation. Appearing at the UBS global media conference in New York, Mr. Buckmaster took questions from the bemused audience, which apparently could not get its collective mind around the notion that Craigslist exists to help Web users find jobs, cars, apartments and dates — and not so much to make money."

How refreshing to see an example of money-isn't-everything laid out plainly to the Wall Street greedmeisters. In my book Slow Is Beautiful I spend considerable time showing how everything from ancient philosophy to scientific research shows that after a certain point, having more money does not make you happier. It does not even necessarily make you healthier or more self-assured or anything else we humans naturally want in our short time on earth.

Good for Craig Newmark and his gang for standing up to the powerful forces of wealth accumulation. His momma must have taught him right!

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