Wealth carries no guarantee of happiness

Published 12:00 am Monday, June 9, 2003

Sometimes the richest people are the most stressed out, talked about, and unhappy people.

With the controversy over Martha Stewart and her alleged shady business dealings, it has surely been hard on her.

Whether she is guilty or innocent of the charges, she has to be worried, not only about the fact that she could go to jail, but stock in Martha Stewart Omnimedia Inc. has gone down a big percentage.

All of this has come about over 4,000 shares of ImClone which was worth about $200,000.

This just goes to show you that no matter if you are one of the richest people around, it can all go sour in a heartbeat.

Apparently she couldn't be happy with the money she already had earned, so she had to get more by cheating, according to accusers.

There are polls all over the internet and television asking people to vote whether she will be found guilty or innocent. All of the polls I have looked at have been against her.

I guess this is a good example of how someone who is poor can be happier than someone with enough money to last them the rest of their life.

Martha Stewart has personified "homemaking" for the last several years. She has been the "Queen of Domestic Tranquillity" and now, she is in hot water because she sold

some ImClone stock the day before the Food and Drug Administration announced that it wouldn't review an application for a cancer drug from the company.

The charges being brought against her do carry prison time. If she is convicted, it would prevent her from serving as an officer of any publicly held company. This includes her own Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

She has maintained her innocence throughout the entire investigation. The founder of ImClone has agreed to pay more than $800,000 in fines for his role in the scheme. He will be sentenced on June 10 for criminal charges resulting from the investigation.

The Martha Stewart Everyday assortment includes towels, sheets, mattress pads, slip covers, pillow cases, quilts, bed spreads and bed skirts, duvets, blankets as well as coordinating wall paper, among numerous other products.

She has, over the past few years, became a household name because of these products and more, and now all of the hard work that has gone into this empire could go right down the toilet, and for what? To make herself a little richer.

If she is guilty, what would be the reason for her downfall. Greed. Plain and simple.

This should let everyone know to be happy with what they have. There is no reason to be so spoiled that they have to sink to cheating just to

give themselves a little more than they already have.

People should realize, if you get to where you want to be by deceit, it can all come crashing back to Earth at any time.