Margaret Heffernan: Reward Comfort & Ease
on Sunday, October 8, 2017Margaret Heffernan Money Quote saying the payoff for money is feeling comfortable and at ease with our state of affairs, so we allow it to do that for us. Margaret Heffernan said:
“Money; making us feel good at first, with consequences we don’t see. We wouldn’t be so blind if our blindness didn’t deliver rewards; the benefit of comfort and ease” — Margaret Heffernan
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In this quote, Margaret Heffernan is commenting on how money can provide immediate feelings of gratification that obscure consequences not immediately visible. By saying money makes us feel good “at first, with consequences we don’t see”, Heffernan suggests financial gains often come with drawbacks or costs that are not obvious in the moment due to the euphoria of the reward.
She implies our “blindness” to these downsides is itself rewarding, delivering “comfort and ease” in the short term. The overall interpretation is that Heffernan views money as something that blinds us to repercussions by satisfying desires up front, and sees this blinding quality as self-reinforcing since it shields us from potentially altering behaviors even when repercussions arise later.
Her message conveys a perspective that the upfront rewards of money can keep us from fully acknowledging or mitigating risks and unintended effects that may emerge over the longer term due to the immediate gratification received.