For shallow fools like Donald Trump, net worth means everything. Yesterday he was bragging that he was worth more than Mitt Romney, as if that mattered when judging someone as a businessman, let alone a President or a person.

Net worth does not equal happiness, and it doesn’t always reflect ability. Of course we want to increase our net worth, as it helps to make your life less risky and more comfortable. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that net worth means everything. If you do that, you’ll neglect things like family and relationships.

Also, as we’ve seen over the past decade, net worth can be the result of many things, including luck and sometimes fraud.

Donald Trump has been a very successful real estate developer and self-promoter. He deserves credit for that. But he also started with significant resources from his father, and he happened to make a bet on New York City at the right time. That said, his business ventures outside of real estate have not fared very well (other than his turn as a reality TV star, and we’ve seen from the likes of Snookie that you don’t need much in the way of talent in that arena).

Mitt Romney was a very successful business consultant. He was successful in a range of businesses, so Trump’s net worth crack is just silly and demonstrates how shallow some rich people can be.