Some people are famous for having money. Some have money for being famous. Others come by both at once. Here’s how I see it:
Movie & TV Stars:
Category: Have money for being famous.
Contributions to Society: Entertainment, charitable contributions (moderate), high-end consumers.
Overall importance: Low.
Rappers:
Category: Have money for being famous.
Contributions to Society: Low-brow entertainment, promotion of gangs, drugs, and pointless car and body accessories, high-end consumers.
Overall importance: Extremely low.
Professional Athletes:
Category: Simultaneous fame and fortune.
Contributions to Society: Entertainment, charitable contributions (rarely), high-end consumers.
Overall importance: Low.
Professional Businessmen/women (e.g. Donald Trump, Bill Gates):
Category: Famous for having money.
Contributions to Society: Charitable contributions (frequently), high-end consumers, industry leaders, operate companies employing thousands of people.
Overall importance: High.
So the point I’m trying to make here is that more often than not, society is idolizing the people who actually make very little real contribution to society. The entertainers of society, as opposed to the ‘do-ers’. How many famous scientists can you name off the top of your head? …that aren’t dead and named Einstein. Even so, how much do you think Einstein got paid for his work? I guarantee you he wasn’t signing multi-million dollar contracts and driving a Bentley.
There’s no fame for the great minds of society, and rarely significant fortune. If you go in for surgery, do you ask who pioneered the procedure that might be saving your life, or improving the quality of it? Or who invented the cure to that last infection you got. Or who’s created or improved all of the little things around you that make your life easier each day. Or who actually made it possible to put a man on the moon.
So the next time you find yourself wishing you were like this week’s famous rapper, think twice. There are millions of people out there making a REAL difference in your life, and you probably don’t even know it.
/rant