put it to the extreme: riches untold or descendants?

i was eating army stew (the meaty version) at seoul yummy with zjw when a question popped up:

if there is a genie offers you unlimited money or descendants, which one you will choose?

and the debate begun.

taking it to the extreme, if you chose riches, you don't have to worry about anything financially. you are favourable up to the point everything you do will be a success. there would be gold rain upon your room every single day so you can just quit your job and start to travels around the world. you can just buy a house in beverly hills in an instant, or order sports car like you order mcdonald delivery. your family still the same, in a sense they won't be affected to have no descendants. you can have a wife, but no child. your wife will never get pregnant, and every single child you adopt will die. there is no one to carry on your blood at all.

on the contrary, if you chose descendants, you don't have to worry about family matters. your family is a representation of happy family, where your husband/wife supports you fully and your children is obedient to you. when they become a teenager, they will stick to family own principle and value. the man/woman they are going to marry is a good one, in a sense he/she is a well match to your children. your husband will grow old with you without looking to another woman. he will stay faithful to you until his very last moment in this earth. however you can never be rich and having countless of financial problems.

which one you will choose?

zjw chose richess.
i chose descendants.

zjw argues "money won't make you happy. however it's more comfortable to cry in BMW than in public bus"
i argue "yes, it's comfortable. but still, it's not happiness."

zjw argues "you can buy things that make you happy"
i argue "yes. but there are way more that money can't buy. for example you can buy thousand of houses, but not home. luxury bed but not sleep. medicine but not health. power but not respect. sex but not love. even elvis one said 'i am as lonely as hell' at the top of his popularity."

zjw argues "it depends on how you use that money. in fact, everybody has a price"
i argue "you can buy friends, but fake one. they are there because of your money."

zjw argues "but i have unlimited money!"
i argue "in the short term, it will be fun to use your money to explores the world. hires celebrity chef to make you breakfast every morning. living in a castle instead of house. having party everyday with famous celebrities and other important figures. but then it will be your 'standard of living' and eventually you will be back living in your own standard like what you have done now. in the long term, you have thousands of houses, various business which are listed in wall street and front page of forbes, you already have everything you can't experience now due to your financial limitation. and then, you'll start to think 'what's next?'"

zjw argues " it depends on how you control your pace"
i argue "sooner or later, it will happens. by then, you will receives a wedding invitation from my daughter. you will see there are people who called me 'mommy' and you will see laughters and tears during the wedding. of course due to my financial problem i won't be able to afford luxury banquet, but you will see a sincere family and not a fake one."

to the very least, zjw will have something i envy about and vice versa.




how about you?