Are we Slaves to Money?

Are we slaves to money? When money makes the world go round, its difficult not to think about it. It puts food on the table, a shirt on our backs and a roof over our heads. The basic necessities in life requires an exchange of money.

In the last 40 years, an Australian persons real income accounting for inflation has more than doubled. Since 1985, the income per individual has gone from $27,800 per year to $65,000 per year in 2022.

Even stating this fact, many Australians surveyed believe that they could not afford to buy everything that they needed. While we see ourselves now as struggling to pay our bills, individuals in the 1980’s were comfortable enough.

The median individual should find themselves twice as rich, and yet we feel twice as poor. We have spent the last 40 years trying to find places to spend our surplus cash.

In a world where consumerism and hyper-materialism is concerned. A majority of the world population are being enslaved by money.

Slaves to Money and Consumerism

We as individuals are earning much more money than our counterparts from 40 years ago. The issue is not with the amount that we make, rather the amount we are spending.

Humans are pleasure seeking creatures, and this pleasure is derived from the consumption of goods. The more we consume, the more we work. The more we work the more we can buy. It is a vicious cycle.

We are always looking for the next thing to purchase, but never thinking of the things we have already afforded. The median individual is already able to live comfortably and afford the basic necessities of life.

But we seem to always be in the situation where we don’t have enough money. The first problem is with the size of our houses. The average house size has doubled in size since 1950, from and average of 100m2 to 186m2. Australian’s want bigger houses and as a result pay more on housing.

The second is cars. Nearly each household has more than 2 cars. And how many of them are guilty of choosing an over-priced European model over a cheaper Toyota that performs relatively the same.

To top it off, a special mention to our constant cravings to buy the latest technology hardware, the luxury branded bag and the obsession for an overpriced coffee.

It’s no surprise that we never have enough.

Slaves to Money and Social Status

Lifestyle creep explains why individuals will always be slaves to money. The problem with lifestyle creep, is that most people don’t realise it is happening.

It is the phenomenon where an individuals discretionary spending increases with the rise of income. Their lifestyle gets an upgrade and so does their social status.

They now have the ability to spend more than they previously could. This leads to spending an increasing proportion of their income on ‘positional goods’. Goods that demonstrate their superior position in society.

It is the bigger house we can now afford, the fancier cars we can drive, the luxurious clothes we can wear and the newest phones we can show off. The status symbol of the upper class. Although those that cannot afford will still find a means to over burden themselves in consumer debt.

Human psychology is difficult to understand. We all know the saying that “the grass is always greener on the other side”. As social animals, human behaviour has a funny way of messing with our heads. It leads us to compare ourselves with others.

We can never seem to be content with what we have. The fact in life is that there will always be someone richer than you and better off than you. Just like you are comparing your lifestyle with another, someone else is comparing theirs with yours.

Remember that you are also the envy of others.

Free yourself from the Slavery of Money

Most people are convinced that we would be happier by having ‘a little more money’. We believe that achieving a higher income will bring us more happiness.

However in this pursuit of increase pay, a higher income never delivers a lasting increase in happiness. Psychologists define this with a term called the ‘hedonic treadmill’. It is the theory that people will repeatedly return back to their baseline level of happiness.

It’s like chasing a never ending rainbow, trying to find that elusive pot of gold. Wanting material things is not a sin, it is human nature. However, individuals with a helping hand from capitalism have been made to believe they need more and more.

Jack Bogle’s book Enough, teaches us that we should know when our ‘enough’ is. A man who doesn’t know how much they need will be fighting an endless battle.

Many people go through life one foot after another. How many people actually plan for the future? How many of us actually define what we want in life and how we are going to achieve it.

The majority of retirees do not enough savings in retirement, and there are the top 1% that have far too much that can be spent in their lifetime. Unfortunately, there are far more in the bottom than there are at the top.

A simple question you can ask yourself. What is the amount of money that will bring you the level of comfort that you are able to enjoy. And to enjoy without having to worry about making any more money. The very meaning of wealth – Time.

Chasing material goods will keep you forever under the grips of money. You will never be able to escape it. It’s a wonder how society have become slaves to money.

Key Takeaways

• Individuals are constantly feeling the pressure of not having enough. In the constant pursuit of higher pay, we spend more on bigger and better things
• In the pursuit of social status we enslave ourselves to the very thing that is supposed make us financially independent. People spend on things that they don’t need, just to impress those that they don’t know.
• Know what is your ‘enough’, save and invest a part of what you earn to achieve that goal

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