People get more money for ruining nature, lying, doing jobs which do not call for much respect or admiration. Real talents and genii stay unnoticed, gain no popularity, though truly deserve respect. Our politics gave us freedom but rather this is freedom to be slaves, not the moral freedom which we need. Thoreau suggests that one must get living by loving. Talents should not be sold but be kept for the beauty and richness of the world because they constitute the meaning of life.