Once upon a time a benevolent god answered his people's prayers and gave them exactly what they wanted: an unlimited supply of money.
Well, the chief priests of economics didn't like that. They said it would ruin everything. But the people didn't listen, and the economy boomed, and everybody got rich.
But the god was in trouble. He started hearing from a great many unhappy millionaires. What was wrong now?
It seems they needed to keep score, and most people lost count at a million or less. Then they went to pieces, losing their bearings in life, turning to drugs, even destroying their credit cards.
There was a growing opinion that the god had indeed ruined everything with his cursed gift, which could not now be removed. There was talk of looking for a new god who could restore meaning to their lives.
Now the over-generous god saw his career was on the line, and he understood why only the mean old gods tend to survive in this business. So he called his angels together to figure how to turn things around and stay in the game. To motivate them he gave them an unlimited supply of money, and their challenge was to make it count, to make it valuable, to make it mean something.
And they did. They made the money good for only the things money can't buy. This happened to be the answer to the latest prayers, which were all for things people couldn't buy with their wealth.
File no. 0139 --
28 AUG 1988 -- Derek Brownlee
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