Thus various Ormanisms that sound encouraging enough addressed to the struggling, but try picturing them coming from, say, Steve Forbes. "What's keeping you from being rich? In most cases it is simply a lack of belief."

And: "Why is it that some people have money while others do not? It's almost mystical, really." Well, no it's not, really. Many are born poor and are much more likely to stay that way -- even those, amazingly, with the good luck to be born into abject poverty in countries like India, whose rich spiritual traditions Orman so admires. Many can and do work their own way up to wealth, as Orman, to her credit, did herself (she's the daughter of a struggling take-out chicken seller and waitressed for years before getting a job with Merrill Lynch). But to imply that their bad fortune is the result of defective souls isn't empowering, it's an insult.

It's good cover for the counsel-giver, though. Did I get bad advice on diversifying my investment portfolio? Or have I simply failed to confront my fear and shame? Orman's slippery, new-speak use of "rich" is likewise useful: now it means "wealthy," now it means "good" -- "richness beyond money, richness of the soul." Verily, the wise woman's meanings are manifold! But it's particularly wise for the author who wants to cover her ass. If you don't get rich following her advice, well, then, she's really talking about feeling rich. "The Courage to Be Rich" never really says you'll get wealthy by being a good person, and it never exactly doesn't say it.

Still, it's hard to write off Orman completely, if only because she has so clearly identified a need in her readers. The bulletin-board messages at her Web site are often touching: "I MESSAGE YOU ABOUT CREDIT CARD BUT IT REALLY WAS SHAME ... I THOUGH I HAD TO HAVE CARD TO MAKE ME BETTER THE MORE I HAD THE BETTER I WAS BOY WAS I WRONG." And it's certainly good to hear a get-rich author advocating tithing, however defined. (The AP reports she searches her hotel rooms for loose change left by people who "don't respect money," then leaves it -- a buck or less -- for the maid.)

And if Suze Orman is a flawed idol, the golden-bull worshippers of today's personal-finance media have helped create her. Turning on any of various cable money shows, her readers hear, on the one hand, by-the-numbers advice that doesn't acknowledge the personal nature of money decisions; and on the other, tales of IPO offerings they can't get in on, overnight tech-stock wealth they'll probably never attain. Orman's Web audience doesn't seem out to get rich so much as to understand IRAs, student loans and trusts.

Perhaps they know better than to buy into her books' grandiose titles; maybe they simply want a way to be comfortable and happy with what they have. As a great American parable reminded us, well-meaning people will travel great distances to any specious wizard who promises us courage and a heart; who hands us a piece of paper and tells us we now have a brain.
salon.com | April 26, 1999

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