The world we live in today is obsessed with material goods. Big houses, fast cars, and high tech cell phones are what people always want to acquire. But is it really all that good? Even some of the most decadent people observed that life gets more complicated when you become wealthier. It was Biggie Smalls who said it best: “Mo Money Mo Problems”.
Think of everything we take for granted: the water we drink, the food we eat, a roof over our heads. These are all things that most of us have lived with our whole life. We don’t think about it very often despite a huge portion of the world lives without these necessities (11% without adequate water, 13% without adequate food, and over 20% without adequate shelter).
This is all natural for humans though. We adjust to our living situation, and begin to take for granted the things that we don’t need to worry about. This isn’t just the case for our necessities, but also our luxuries. Try going a whole day without your phone. We can all do this, but because we are so accustomed to it, it can be incredibly difficult without it. Many of us who aren’t rich like to think that if we become rich, our lives would be awesome and everything would be better. In reality, we would just enjoy the good life until we got used to it.
The private jet probably feels really nice, but the people who fly often enough to justify purchasing one probably feel the same emotions as people who have to fly coach or first class in an airliner. A huge house is probably great too until there is any sort of instability with your source of income, and you realize how ridiculously expensive it is. Or maybe you focus too much on your work, and not your personal life. So that big fancy house is empty all the time. Rich or poor, we are all human, and we all feel the same loneliness.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau famously said “money can’t buy happiness”. Growing up, people around me (and myself at times) scoffed at this, because of course it would! If people don’t have to worry about their bills then they would have more time to enjoy their life. But the kinds of people who have lots of money tend to be in positions of power or responsibility, and often have to dedicate themselves to their work. This inevitably leads to a break down in their interpersonal connections with people. What Rousseau means when he says “money can’t buy happiness” is that happiness must be earned, and cannot be bought.
Happiness comes from taking the time to work towards something: like crafting something by hand, developing meaningful connections with people, or working through something difficult in order to feel the satisfaction of accomplishment. This is how people experience true happiness. Not from buying things that everyone wants. It is this fanatical materialism that leads people down a path of hollow living. When we as a people learn to cast away the need for material, it is then when we can become the most enlightened.
