Who is a mercantile man?

Often in forums (and in real life) you can stumble upon people, mostly young people, who are interested in what the word "mercantile" means. The meaning of this word can be explained simply: it is translated from Italian and French as mercenary, mercantile, calculating, petty. Another 25-30 years ago, it was almost impossible to meet mercantile people in our country. Probably, Soviet education and the imposed belief that all people are equal were affected. However, it was. Today, every person has a lot of opportunities to become richer and more successful, and in those days to be rich, they needed to be born, that is, to be the heir of a statesman or a descendant of a noble person who did not lose his fortune.

A man from the working class was ordered to luxury. But no one complained, all worked hard, honestly earned a living, and few people even suspected that interpersonal relationships can be built on the basis of personal greed. Moreover, any mercantile man was contemptuously scoffed at. It is enough to even remember the hero Saveliy Kramarov in the old Soviet comedy "The Big Change". Of course, he worked just like everyone else, but for the sake of a superfluous penny he was even prepared to hold a large, heavy tank with water for a dispute, as long as he had enough.

Today, the situation has radically changed, and the mercantile person is no longer considered an outcast of society. On the contrary, the inclination to haggling is actively encouraged, for it is believed that only when it is able to trade and walk, it is possible, if not to get rich, at least not to be poor. Now everyone is looking for a profit in everything: the state assigns a ridiculous minimum wage with crazy taxes, going incomprehensibly, on what; Private employers are seeking to profit from wage earners by any means; Banks issue loans at unrealistic interest rates ...

And what can we say about interpersonal relations, when a mercantile girl wants to marry a "majeure" or, worse, a rich old man, just not to work and live the clover! She was hammered in her head from her childhood, that her husband must earn a lot, and his wife - to spend a lot. And such a concept as "feelings" is all from the realm of fantasy and fairy tales about Cinderella. The same can be said about friendship. Rarely, who today will be friends "for nothing". Any mercantile person does not even look in the direction of the one whose prosperity is lower than his own. And if such a "friend" is asked to lend, it will either not give or give, but at such a rate that it will be cheaper to apply for a loan to the bank. And such people are friends only as long as friends are fine. Happening misfortune, help, even moral, mercantile man will not. It is not profitable for him.

These people are calculating extremely, self-serving, mean, greedy. True, most of them prefer to call themselves economical. The paradox is also that, the more richer man is, the greedier he is. Sometimes it comes to the point of absurdity, when he even pities himself for an extra penny, not to mention someone. He literally "wrapped" on the benefits, like Uncle Scrooge from the famous cartoon. So money is money, but do not forget that apart from them, there is simply a life that has the property of passing by or breaking off at the most inopportune moment. And in his old age, it suddenly seems that, besides accounts in banks, there's nothing more to remember.