Why are so many people obsessed with money and wealth?

1. 84

   Kenna McHughposted 10 years ago

   Why are so many people obsessed with money and wealth?

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2. 71

   Katrina Speightsposted 10 years ago

   Because we have been taught all of our lives that it is the key to happiness, health and security. We are trained from a young age that this is the way to go. We are not taught that it can be very difficult if you follow the "normal" path. Nor are we taught how to really achieve this. So a lot of people spend their whole lives in jobs that slowly kill them, never realizing that the reasons they were working for were flawed in the first place.

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   1. 84

      Kenna McHughposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      That's true. I wasn't raised to want money or things. We weren't well off either, but I didn't know it could have been better. Looking back,  I know if we had more money it would have been better.

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3. 77

   chef-de-jourposted 10 years ago

   This is a simple question but a straight simple answer is impossible.
   
   As far as I can tell the financial/bartering/trading systems we've built up over millenia have always involved accumulation of currency, goods and land/property. Rarely have we invented a system of equal exchange (if you don't count the Marxist attempts) because it seems that as humans we prefer to have inherent imbalances in the way we go about our business.
   
   So the Few end up controlling the Many. What the Few do the Many tend to copy.
   
   Rampant capitalism has helped fuel the obsessions of the Few. That's why we see obscene amounts of material wealth now all over the globe contrasting unhealthily with dire poverty in some regions. In the western world many are becoming sick through want of wealth and 'things'. It's worrying I admit but I guess obsession has always been around in some form - it just seems outrageously stupid in these digital days of the web and what not.
   
   I can envisage a future somewhere on the planet when everyone has loads of everything and obsession is something you take a tablet for....oh hang on, isn't this already the case?
   
   Maybe celebrity is now the new obsession?

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   1. 84

      Kenna McHughposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      If obsession was just in a tablet, iPad, we'd lack the true meaning of life, living.  I am not a fan of Marxist because in the true sense only a few would shoulder the world. We'd lack in wanting more.

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4. 96

   peeplesposted 10 years ago

   Money is required to have a good life, at least in my country. My child wants a bike? Do I have money for it? We want food, a roof, a vehicle, all of it requires money. Anyone who says money doesn't buy happiness has never been so poor that they have no where to sleep or no way to feed their children.

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   1. 84

      Kenna McHughposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      That's true. But don't you think seeing others have everything they want makes others who don't have everything they want feel low? The old "have and have nots."

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   2. 96

      peeplesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Course of life and good for those who see others and try to attain what they have. I see that as a positive.

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   3. 84

      Kenna McHughposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yes. I can see how that could work for the best.

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   4. 85

      gmwilliamsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      AMEN to that.  Money is very important in this society. Can't live of air, why can't some people realize this?

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5. 85

   gmwilliamsposted 10 years ago

   
   
   Having money and particularly having wealth is the difference between socioeconomic struggle and having the ultimate financial freedom.  When one has little money, he/she is not living a comfortable life of choices.  He/she is worried about how to socioeconomically survive, making ends meet..  His/her main concern is worrying about putting food on the table, where he/she will live, and in generally suriving at the most basic level with very little or no choices instead of really living. 
   
   Many people are 1.5 paychecks from homelessness and utter penury.  So it is smart that people be obsessed with money and wealth.  It is only an unwise person or a very wealthy one who is NOT obsessed with money and wealth.  People realize that money and wealth guarantee a higher standard/quality of life which one does not have if one has little money and is living at a bare knuckle socioeconomic level.
   
   When one has money/wealth, there is more choices in life.  He/she has the freedom to live in the choicest and most desirable neighborhoods and districts.  He/she can afford the best education for his/her children.  He/she has the best quality of medical, health, and dental care-these things AREN'T cheap.  The more money, the better quality overall.  Also, money and wealth equals POWER+RESPECT+INFLUENCE. 
   
   A wealthy person has more power to make changes and reformations than a person who ...well ISN'T.  When one is wealth, he/she has more ownership over his/her life than a person who isn't wealthy. Having money, particularly wealth, means more unlimited choices than one has when he/she ISN'T wealthy.  Poorer people are slaves in one way or another in society while wealthier people do not have to be.

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   1. 84

      Kenna McHughposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Very good points. Money is power. What about the French revolution? When, obviously, the aristrocats had money, lots of it, but fell to the poor in the streets and the guillotine.

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   liesl5858posted 10 years ago

   I think some people are obsessed with money and wealth because that is what they think that will make them happy. People with money seem to get whatever they want but us poor people have to think where to spend our few pennies sensibly and sometimes we don't have pennies to rub together.
   As for me, as long as I have a roof over my head, have food to eat and have few pennies for my bills, I am quite happy. I am not obsessed with money that I will overlook my own health. My health comes first before money because if I am ill, I can't enjoy my money.

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   1. 84

      Kenna McHughposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Good points. What if you didn't have enough money to care for your home or get your kid to college? You would still be happy?

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7. 69

   stricktlydatingposted 10 years ago

   To live a good lifestyle free from financial worries. For themself and their family.

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8. 58

   Della30posted 10 years ago

   Well its advertised that it can make you happy and when you have it all things will fall into place.  Like you'll get that spouse and the perfect family just get money and lots of it.  But thats not the truth.  The only things that are priceless on earth; cannot be bought with money.  Those are things your soul should strive for.

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   1. 84

      Kenna McHughposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I agree. You can't take it with you.

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