‘Enough’and the American Lifestyle

John Bogle was recently interviewed on NPR. As a former CEO of the Vanguard Group, people are interested to know his thoughts on the economy. He shares those thoughts in his new book, Enough: The True Measure of Money, Business and Life.

While Bogle never shirks from sharing financial advice, Enough is philosophical and full of reflections. It’s basically a book about character. Bogel offers his critique of American society and ask the question of when is enough, enough. He relates that question towards business, money, and life.

Bogle admits that the current financial system makes him furious. He says that we pay Wall Street investors far more money than they’re worth. He states that we’re essentially paying enormous sums of money to people who don’t produce anything of value.

He says that this is caused by an obsession with counting in our society. The problem with basing all of your decisions, status, and prestige on numbers, is that many of these numbers are doctored and misleading. Yet the truly important aspects of life can never really be counted.

This is demonstrated dramatically through countless business examples. It’s easy to look at a company that is doing well in the numbers, but at its core is not a solidly built business. When tough times hit, we wonder what happened to all of that supposed success.

Beyond business, Bogus feels there’s something to be said for building your life on honesty and ethics. America should strive for high quality of life, rather than trying to make more money than anyone can spend.

Unfortunately, we live in a society that has been consumed by greed, and that greed has come back to plague us. It will continue to do so unless the majority of America starts to do what Bogel suggests in Enough. ‘The only way to work our way through today’s deep-seated problems is to return to values that stem from principle, virtue and character.