In Our Time
by William Elliott Hazelgrove
In the beginning
of the movie Citizen Kane, a young reporter tries to find
out something about Kane's life and goes to see an old friend,
a Mr. Bernstein.
"What can you tell me about this Kane....I know he
was rich...."
"What is that," Mr. Bernstien said. "Young
man, if all you want to do in life is make a lot of money,
then you will probably make a lot of money...if that's all you
want in life."
We live in an age of millionaires. Or so it seems. Time Warner
merges with America Online. The biggest merger ever we are told.
Seemingly millions more will now become rich. Every day we are
treated to tales of easy money. A twenty 
five
year old, nay an eighteen year old makes an option trade on a
little known high-tech stock and becomes a millionaire. College
friends start up the latest IPO and it soars to untold heights.
Take your pick of what .com you want and merely attach it to
a name. Men who were the computer geeks of yester-year are now
throwing parties with tabs of a quarter million dollars. Poets
and writers and dreamers need not apply.
This is the computer revolution and
if you are not glued to the glowing screen then obviously you
have missed the boat or at least the last ship to cyberspace.
My friend is a daytrader. He had aspirations into film making
but a few day trades put him thousands ahead and then he lost
thousands then he made thousands and lost thousands. This went
on for years while he edited other peoples films and made very
good money doing it but not the untold millions we are tantalized
with in mass media. So he started trading options. The big risk
big hit play. Finally, his stock moved and he made one hundred
and fifty thousand dollars in a week.
Another success story. Another tidbit for the combine to churn
up and hold over other peoples heads as you too can do this.
My friend said to me the other day, "I'm going to have more
women coming after me now that I am becoming rich and famous."
No longer is one merely rich. No, the famous is automatically
tacked on in the internet age because after one becomes rich
you can tell everyone about it on your own web site. Or you can
simply do an email dump. So...everyone is becoming rich...aren't
they?
Another friend of mine, a family man,
lost eighty thousand dollars in a week. He didn't tell his wife
and his mother took 
out
a second mortgage on her home. After four years he finally told
her and their marriage hasn't been the same. Myself, I admit
it. I tried my hand. I staked myself a thousand dollars and jumped
into the fray. I daytraded for a week. It was all I thought about.
Forget writing novels. Was my stock going up or down? I couldn't
even cut the grass without rushing in to check on my stocks.
At the end my thousand dollars was a mere thirty dollars. I graduated
from Daytrade U. My tuition was nine hundred and seventy dollars.
My degree was, YAAD. "YOU AREN'T A DAYTRADER."
Funny, for a week I had.forgotten all about being a writer. I
was going to make MONEY!!!!!
But still as I walk with my latest novel in hand from coffee
shop to the attic to the post office hunching against the winter
cold I catch those headlines.
MORE MILLIONAIRES THAN EVER
BEFORE! THE DOW SOARS!
It seems the Dow has been soaring for years now. I sat on
the porch the other night with my father having a cigar. He is
sixty five and life hasn't given him what he thought it should.
He still has to work and didn't plan for retirement. He talked
of the untold many who were making the easy money. His heroes
are the men of millions and now he is just another spectator
in the crowd watching their rush to the goldmines of IPOS and
soaring stocks. Yet he raised a family of four and provided well
for us. But he is a failure.
The American Dream has changed. If
you are not a millionaire then you missed. That is now the carrot
held out by the media. Forget the dignity of raising a family
or doing something, dare I say it, "you love or believe
in" No. The rush is on for the Klondike of the year 2000
my friends. It is plastic and sits on your desk top and you don't
even have to get a mule or a packhorse or go to California much
less the Yukon. Those gold nuggets layinging in the stream are
in that glowing screen before you now. But one thing has not
changed. You must give yourself over to the almighty dollar.
One in thirty IPOS make it. Thousands are wiped out in the market
so the few can buy a Rolls. You will live it. The cyber-world
will be your domain and you will breathe it and eat it and lay
with it and make love to it and sell your soul for your chance
to spin the wheel of fortune. You may win. You may be one of
those millionaires. But then what? My friend talks of making
films after he is rich. I met a man once who said he was a business
man all his life and now he wanted to be a novelist before he
died. The cart before the horse, or can we have it all? I think
not. We know not. You either throw in with the crowd or take
the road less traveled. It's always been that way and always
will. After Jack London went to the Klondike and tried his hand
he started writing. He turned to the life of the "the mind."
He saw something in that frozen wasteland the yellow journalism
of the day wasn't telling people. People dying for a fantasy.
The gold nuggets laying in streams.
Betrayed by marketing. Funny thing about the internet is it
is a self serving entity. The wares it is selling it is creating.
A talking Sears catalog. But I am a writer so I can not partake.
So maybe it's just sour grapes.If my week at Day-trade U had
been different then maybe I would sing a different tune. Maybe
it's really what Mr. Bernstien said and that's the closest we
can come to truth--if all you want to do in life, is make a lot
of money, then you will most probably, make a lot of money....
--if that's all you want to do in life.
