In search of enough-II

We, as a civilisation, suffer from the never enough syndrome: the more we have, the more we want to have.
Gautam Chikermane
The one whose appetite is satisfied loathes honey, but to the hungry mouth every bitter thing is sweet. –Proverbs 27:7, Bible
Satish Patel from New Delhi has been one of our earliest, most regular and steadfast readers, encouraging us when we do good work and reprimanding us when we slip up. This time he’s pointed out something so basic, so simple and so obvious, that I wonder why I didn’t think of it before. In my previous column, I had explored the limits of wealth we want, and was wondering when we’ll ever have Enough of it. In response to which Patel writes: "There is a lot of truth in your musings (In Search of Enough, April 30). However, I believe that somewhere down the line the inexorable Law of Diminishing Returns would start to take effect. That’s when people face lifetime crises. And, perhaps, start contributing to others’ wealth–shrinks and doctors."
For those who are not students of economics, the law of diminishing returns is an economic principle that lays down that the application of additional units of any one factor of production– labour, land, capital–to fixed amounts of the other factors yields successively smaller increments in the total output. For instance, if more and more labourers are added to harvest a farm, at some point each additional labourer will add less output than his predecessor did, simply because he has less and less of the fixed amount of land to work on. A long-time characteristic of Indian agriculture, economists have called this ‘disguised unemployment’. First hinted at by sociologist-economist Thomas Robert Malthus in his 1798 paper, Essay on the Principle of Population, this principle was later accepted as an economic law underlying all productive enterprises.
Opinion in Outlook Money

In search of enough

Reinvent yourself while pursuing new goals and you will move up.
Gautam Chikermane
He is the richest who is content with the least: Socrates
When I started my career, it was at a low-paid job in the low-paid profession of journalism. My first paycheque was for Rs 1,650. I would take a morning bus to office and an evening bus back home, watching with great delight the spring blossoms in Delhi. I would not eat out or buy too many things. I was happy, but... I thought if I made Rs 5,000 a month, I would be a rich man. When I did begin to earn Rs 5,000, I would sometimes take my wife out to a Chinese joint and splurge Rs 250 on a lavish lunch. I was happy, but... I thought Rs 8,000 was a salary to aspire for. And this aspiration has gone upwards in a spiral dance, making me prance from one foot to the other, in search of ‘Enough’.
I am not alone. So many people leave so many jobs everyday because they aren’t being paid Enough. When they look at their investments, it’s the same story: in the best case, their investment in Infosys has trebled, but they think that’s not Enough for them to sell–it could treble again, they feel. When they drove a bike, all they wanted was something, anything, on four wheels; now their Maruti 800 isn’t enough–it’s not big enough, it’s not cool enough, it’s not worthy of their status; it’s just not Enough.
Opinion in Outlook Money