You might think Americans are odd because... ##IANAP (I Am Not a Philosopher), but... I can both come up with and appreciate philosophically significant musings. Like the one I read on Slashdot today about software piracy. When you pirate a $500 copy of Photoshop it's not Adobe that loses $500, but JASC that loses $90 for the copy of Paint Shop Pro that you actually could have afforded if you didn't have the illegal albeit free alternative. Piracy hurts the little man. Shopping at Luckys hurts the mom-and-pop place down the street. Eating at McDonalds hurts the greasy burger joint on the corner. Does downloading an MP3 keep you from spending $5 on a local band's CD? OK, that wasn't quite philosophical. Read on. In my limited experience, addictions are like races without a finish, itches that cannot be scratched away, yearnings that will not be filled. In fact, the existence of the desired thing creates the very need for it, and the absence of the desired thing eliminates the dependency or addiction. For example, a smoker craves a cigarette which provides him with nicotine, which in turn exacerbates the addiction. The smoker will never be satisfied, and yet will continue to consume because the very object of his desire has created a need for more. How does one escape this cycle of endless addiction? By removing oneself from it completely. To borrow a term from the example, it requires a "cold turkey" end to the consumption. My brilliant application of this regards money. Money creates a psychological addiction that can never be satisfied. How much money is enough money? One dollar more, as Rockefeller said. There is hope, though, of breaking out of the "addiction" to money. By removing oneself "cold-turkey" from the cycle of pursuing and spending money, or by placing it in such a low priority that it becomes minute compared to other pursuits one can rescue themselves from the endless and wasteful race for the golden dollar.