By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
There is money to be made post quarantine but we will be talking here about money makers whom a great seer once described as mean minded.
Let us start with my profession. I am a lawyer and one of those mentioned as mean minded are lawyers. They are praying that more people would have problems that will require some legal expertise or knowhow. In short, more people in trouble means better revenues for the lawyers, especially those in private practice.
Those who will be shelling out a lot for lawyers are those who had been taking too much risk and failed in their get-rich quick schemes. They will need a lot of lawyer’s time which is of course expensive.
How about the doctors? While many of them are heroes now being in the frontline during this pandemic, many others are praying that more and more people should get sick who will be running to doctors. Therefore, the more people getting sick means more money for the doctors. Those who will not be needing doctors are those who have been investing on their health. Those who, early on, had realized that indeed health is wealth.
There comes also the money lenders. With the lockdown so many people are in need of cash. They will walk right into the jaws of the money lenders who had been praying for such a situation. While there might be reasonable money lenders, there are more who would take advantage of the dire situations of others.
I know a local bank which is not actually in the banking business. The owners are in the foreclosing of land business. When they sign loan agreements they are not looking at the capacity to pay of the customers but their eyes are moist on the real estate collaterals. They would always be looking forward to the clients’ defaulting on their payments.
How about the priests or pastors who should be taking care of our spiritual development or salvation? Many of them are also looking forward to making some money from those in problematic situations. The solicitation would be in the form of donations after making people comfortable by citing spiritual verses or after telling them feel good stories about how the grace of god got somebody out of the mire because of faith. Whether the money they collect are termed as donations or something else these are all revenues, pure and simple.
Other priests and pastors, as I heard, would not even perform some religious duties such as saying mass for the dead unless the proper fees were paid.
What is common among all these supposedly mean minded people? They are making their living or their money by taking advantage of the miseries of others. Those who are reasonable, however, who do not take advantage of the miseries of others cannot be called mean minded.
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