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If Cash Is King, Money Is God Connie H. Deutsch "Cash is king," said my accountant. "Cash is king," my banker nodded vigorously. "Cash is king," agreed my attorney. "Cash is king," chorused my friends and clients. So, when did cash gain a status that is higher in rank than king? When did money become God? When it comes to money, people tend to do strange things. It can be the ultimate test of one's integrity or the definitive measure of one's greed. And the interesting thing is that those who are at the low end of the scale seldom see themselves as lacking in character. Many years ago, as part of the counseling I was doing for a group of people who were friends, I tried an experiment. I told them to play a game of Monopoly and to monitor each other's behavior. Then, they had to write down their findings and we would do some directed therapy during the next session. There was a nice range of behavior patterns in this group. One man was very ruthless in business, another was codependent; one woman was a people-pleaser and a chameleon, and the other woman was a control freak. Their notes on each other were very enlightening. The game mimicked real life. Once they got engrossed in the buying and selling of properties, they reverted to type. The ruthless man didn't care how he accomplished it but he went about methodically accumulating the best properties. The codependent man kept making excuses for him and letting him have the prime properties. The people-pleasing woman kept reminding everyone that this was just a game and not to take it so seriously and to please stop arguing, and the control freak wanted to be banker and to monitor everyone's holdings. The outcomes of games are easily forgotten but real life situations are not. When someone cheats you out of money that is rightfully yours, most likely a kernel of anger and resentment takes root. But when this is a case of someone squeezing you dry, you either have to sink to their level or make a conscious decision to rise above it and walk away from the situation. No one likes to be the victim of someone's greed and yet we see this in action everywhere we look. It starts at an early age: you can see children in the sandbox grabbing someone else's toys and the only thing that changes as they get older is that the toys become more expensive. When people are starving and they steal a loaf of bread to feed their family, that is understandable. But when they steal to see what they can get away with, that is something altogether different. An individual might be able to get away with stealing small sums but when it happens at the corporate level and pension funds are wiped out, all hell breaks loose and people are shocked at the magnitude of the theft. But why should they be shocked when society has been turning a blind eye to crimes of a lesser nature? You can always convince yourself that your need is greater than someone else's and therefore, you must take what isn't yours just to keep financially afloat. Although greed has continually been part of our culture it's still difficult to watch someone deliberately strip a person of his assets just because he wants what the other person has. In most societies, money, or at least some form of currency with which to buy or barter goods or services, has been of the utmost importance. Whether the exchange rate is the number of camels or dollars used to finesse a deal, this has invariably been a symbol of a person's worth, a measure of his status. And greed has consistently entered into the equation. During the best of times and the worst of times, the rallying cry of the rich and poor has been "cash is king." Now, however, with this downturn economy bringing out the worst in people, cash is no longer king. Money is now God. Connie H. Deutsch is an internationally known business consultant and personal advisor who has a keen understanding of human nature and is a natural problem-solver. She is known throughout the world for helping clients find solutions to problems that are often complex and systemic in nature and part of a corporation's culture or an individual's pattern of behavior. Connie has hosted her own weekly radio show, been a weekly guest on a morning radio show, done guest spots on radio shows around the country, and appeared as a guest on a cable television show. Connie wrote a weekly newspaper Advice Column for sixteen years and has been invited to speak at local colleges and given lectures around the country. She also wrote the scripts for a weekly financial show on cable television. Connie is the author of the book, "Whispers of the Soul" and is the co-author of an E-book, "Getting Rich While the Rest of the World Falls Apart" which is being offered as a free download on her website. She has also written and produced two CDs on Meditation and Relationships and has done coaching on customer service and employee relationships. Her website is: http://www.conniehdeutsch.com
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