# 09 Don’t Take The Money *Week 2, Day 3 of [[00 The Wealthy Stoic Course]]* #source/course << [[08 Money Is A 'Preferred Indifferent'|Back]] | [[10 An Honest Dollar Is The Most Impressive Thing|Next]] >>  ## Content In the 1940s, then Congressman Lyndon Johnson wanted to hire a promising young man named John Hicks to manage his successful radio station in Austin. Meeting late at night at a restaurant, Johnson gave the eager kid the kind of pitch that most of us dream of getting at some point in our lives. “Johnny, I want you on my team,” Johnson said. There was more than that—he was prepared to be incredibly generous. “I’m going to lend you ten thousand dollars. And I want you to take it and buy yourself a Cadillac car. And I want you to move to a better apartment. I want you to be somebody. Furnish the apartment. Get \[your wife] a fur coat. I want you to \[join some local clubs] and be somebody here in Austin.” This was an offer to someone making $75 a week, coming from one of the most powerful Congressman in the United States. This was said in a restaurant that should have been closed but stayed open any time Johnson wanted to eat there. Here was a rich, powerful man making an offer that couldn’t, shouldn’t be refused. But…Hicks said no.  Why?  It had a lot to do with Johnson’s next words, according to Robert Caro. Hicks asked how he would ever expect to be paid back, Lyndon smiled and in his charming way said, “Johnny, don’t worry about that. You let me worry about that.” Hicks knew that Johnson wasn’t selling him on a job. He was trying to put him in a kind of lifestyle debt—committing him to a number of very attractive lifestyle choices that are hard to ever walk away from. No one ever moves to a crappier apartment by choice, no one ever wants to go back to not being someone. Lyndon was a notoriously horrible boss—known for working employees almost like slaves, demanding complete and total subservience, utter and unquestioning loyalty. But he was also a brilliant, manipulative reader of people. To suck people in, he knew exactly what to do and say. This is just a more explicit version of a pitch made a thousand times a day to promising young men and women around the world. Take out a loan and go to this college, it says sometimes. Other times it says: Here’s an important promotion but it’s going to mean giving up all your side projects. Other times it comes in the form of credit card offers or clothing stores or “investments” from VCs. There are a million iterations. And many, many people say yes…to their eventual regret. Upton Sinclair calls this the “dress-suit bribe”—one that preys on the recipient being mostly unaware that any transaction has ever happened. As he observes in [_The Brass Check_](https://www.thepaintedporch.com/products/the-brass-check-a-study-of-american-journalism?_pos=1&_sid=54c9e31a4&_ss=r)_,_ > “When you have your shoes shined, you pay the boot-black ten cents; but can you figure out what you are paid for having your shoes shined? When you buy a new suit of clothes, you pay the dealer, say, one hundred dollars; but can you figure what you are paid for being immaculately dressed, for having just the right kind of tie, just the right kind of accent, just the right manner of asserting your own importance and securing your own place at the banquet-table of Big Business?” The dress-suit bribe works particularly well because it doesn’t seem like a bribe. It’s not overt. It’s disguised as a gift. And it’s hard to say no to a gift. The philosopher Nassim Taleb joked that a person possesses true wealth when the money they turn down is sweeter than the money they accept. If only more Stoics had lived by this, or had been strong enough too. If only more of us could find the strength to do this today. How much more impressive we would all be. Just look at [[Seneca]] accepting a paycheck from Nero. He accepted piles and piles of gifts. He couldn’t see that Nero was slowly buying him, trapping him in a gilded cage. Seneca’s fortune grew—soon, he was the second richest man in Rome—but his control over his own life diminished. He was tied up in Nero’s misdeeds; he was at the mercy of his whims. When Seneca tried to walk away, Nero said, “Nope.” When Seneca tried to give all the money back, he learned that’s not how it works. Nero called the tune now. Nero owned him.  To a Stoic, that was a form of death (indeed, Seneca died not long after this, at Nero’s hand). Blood money comes at the cost of your soul. Bribes and corruption are not just wrong; they’re dangerous. It’s corrosive. There are always strings attached, whether the money comes in the form of a salary or an envelope of cash slid under a table. Let [[Seneca]] be an example of that. Let Cato be an inspiration.  But most of all, remember what Bill Cunningham said:  > "If they pay you, they get to tell you what to do." Remember: “Money’s the cheapest thing. Liberty, freedom is the most expensive.” **Watch Instagram [video](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CiYrZ9Bg6Xn)** 📺 --- ## Activity **When have you said "no"?** Reflect on the times that you turned down a job or a promotion. Turned down meeting with old friends that you haven't talked to in years. Chose a major your parents didn't support. How did you feel in the moment? Where are you now? Where did it bring you? You made those decisions because you knew what was right for you. You know your limitations, the value of your time, the lifestyle you want to achieve, the people you want to surround yourself with.