An Observation from Learning Corporate Finance

2022-03-12

I'm reading Brealey et al.'s Principles of Corporate Finance to learn more about finance and how to think about it. Two of the examples so far include:

• buying a saiboat ("something like a 40-foot Beneteau would fit the bill very well.")
• buying a country club membership

I don't quite know what to make of these examples. Are they alienating and classist? Sure. Are they frivolous and hollow? I sure feel that way. Or perhaps I'm just channeling a sentiment from this morning:

Why should the lord of the country flit about like a fool? If you let yourself be blown to and fro, you lose touch with your root. If you let restlessness move you, you lose touch with who you are.

— Tao Te Ching 26