That Old Fuck You Money

Back in my day, “Fuck You Money” was that sum of money, which when it once was obtained, would enable the newly rich person to say a big, heartfelt “fuck you” to virtually the entire world. Fuck bosses, fuck convention, fuck working, fuck what people think, fuck it all, I’m good. Back then about a million would do it.

In today’s economy I suppose it would take at least fifty million, much less than that and you’d still have to be careful. Would fifty million cover it? I am at two distinct disadvantages when it comes to financial computations. First, I’m a little out of the loop; and second, I was never in the loop.

Back in those simpler times the whole idea of Fuck You Money was really just a dream, nobody was expecting it to happen. I mean, the odd scheme might have occurred to us, but really we had no shot of obtaining it and we didn’t really worry about it either. It was a dream, a dream of avarice, an unobtainable dream, I guess just saying “dream” covers it.

Now it’s very, very different. Fuck You Money has become a goal, not a dream. In today’s “your on your own” world, the “zero-sum” world, where greed and financial considerations for everything have become enshrined as our new religion, money has become the be-all-and-end-all of everything. Comedians no longer wish only to be funny and make a living, they want to make that Fuck You Money. Film makers are no longer satisfied with making good movies, they want that Fuck You Money. No one is satisfied supplying a good product and insuring prosperity for themselves, their stockholders, and their employees, the goal is Fuck You Money (for themselves, fuck the stockholders and the employees). Entertainers, sports stars, entrepreneurs, they all want it. Individuals who lack the necessary good ideas become politicians, hoping that the Fuck You Money will fall out of the tree on them, the tree of people who do have the talent and already have the Fuck You Money.

It doesn’t look like it's liable to change any time soon either, so get used to the new “Fuck You” world.