Here's a problem many of us might wish we had: being so rich that we have to start worrying about its effect on our children. It seems there are suddenly a lot more people around who fall into this category. So many, in fact, that the U.S. investment bank Merrill Lynch has reportedly begun offering psychiatric counseling services to the children of its "overnight-tycoon" clients -- those people who have made millions or, in an astonishing number of cases, billions, riding America's stock-fueled rocket to the stars.
Besides having to do something with their newfound wealth (although the ever-helpful Merrill Lynch can help them out there as well), instantly rich parents are understandably concerned about their children contracting "affluenza," a malady with two simple symptoms: a) having more money than you know what to do with, and b) thinking it somehow makes you better than other people.
Of course, the very, very rich -- to adapt Christ's observation about the poor -- have been with us always: a King Midas here, a Venetian doge there, Rothschilds and Vanderbilts and Gettys and Tsutsumis by the dozen. None of them, presumably, had the benefit of "financial-parenting" advice as they struggled to cope with the indolent and overprivileged teenage monsters haunting their households.