GEORGE F. WILL
February 24, 2000
That Clinking, Clanking Sound
Money seems to be much on the minds of almost everyone almost all the time, not only as a goal but as a general explanation of human behavior. So let us note two exceptions from what can be called the Rule that Money Rules Behavior. The campaign of George W. Bush is proving — redundantly: Remember Senator Huffington? No one else does either — what Ford Motor Company proved with the Edsel. That is, money matters, but so does the quality of the product.

And Ken Griffey, Jr., decided to go home to Cincinnati, to play for his father (soon to be the Reds' manager), rather than maximize his market value as a free agent at the end of the 2000 season. He has signed a long-term contract that probably will cost him $40 million over the next decade.

Granted, it is easy to rise above monetary considerations when your base pay (before endorsements, etc.) for a decade has nine digits. Still, people are not quite the simple mechanisms supposed by those whose thinking is a monomania about money.

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