It’s pretty wild that throughout the varied permutations of time, one thing doesn’t seem to change. Its medium and mode of transfer has seen different phases, but money maintains its hold on us. This strange relationship we have with the ability to purchase has barely evolved.
Might even go so far as to say that it has taken two steps backwards. The most common associations with the term are power and greed. These two concepts continue to power our economies and way of living; where profit maximisation of any nature is priority.
This has led to devising ways to accomplish faster and cheaper to beat out the competition on the manufacturing side, and us buying faster and cheaper from a consumer angle. Both fronts fuel operations that heavily compromise in the name of productivity, and result in a lot of harm. Think Fast Fashion, Food and the models that “sustain” them.
As Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern states, "Economic growth accompanied by worsening social outcomes is not success. It is failure."
It doesn’t help that we also treat people with money differently—even if they weren’t the ones who earned it. Why does the knowledge that someone belongs to generational wealth change the way you regard them?
Just gander at the insipid shows on Netflix. If there ever was a reality tv competition on how much charitable work an individual can do, viewers will probably still choose the documentary on billionaire lifestyles. So the blame isn’t even on the algorithm when it only churns what has proven to earn the most eyeballs.
What Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith penned three centuries ago still stands today, where The Wealth of Nations is not measured by gold but the living standards of the whole population: “Every man is rich or poor according to degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of human life.”
It could boil down to our perception of money, as a predominantly inherent misconception of what it can bring. You think it’s an obvious statement, but it doesn’t change the fact that you hanker after a big house and nice things. Ultimately, you believe that’s what will make you happy, and money is the means to achieve it.
I’m doing it for my family, you may argue. Earning a living wage is one thing; think long and hard about what a child truly needs to feel loved and fulfilled. The richer they come, often the more unhappy they are. Any deviance is likely an inherited mindset.
It’s like what comedian Jimmy Carr coins as ‘Life Dysmorphia’. We’re living in a great era (Singaporean households didn’t have ensuite bathrooms merely 60 years ago), but we still think our lives are could be better.
We continue somehow convinced that if we’re not happy now, we will be when we get there. When the truth is if you’re not satisfied right this moment, you’ll never be no matter the size of your bank account.
