“Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!” – Ecclesiastes 5:10
They say money is the root of all evil. I have heard as well that it is not money itself, but rather the love of money, and I am inclined to agree. I have seen firsthand, on both the personal and the world stage, just how corrupt a person can become once they get a taste of green.
This coming decade may be the closest that the American experiment has ever gotten to class consciousness since the Progressive Era – over a century ago and beyond living memory. It is becoming increasingly clear that those with an obscene amount of money acquired it not through their own merit, but through obscene means. And, of course, they use it for obscene causes.
I would advocate for a term along the lines of “wealth addiction” to describe that mentality that the rich take on. To those who love wealth, there is nothing else. There is no end to their craving. And there is nothing they would not do to watch their net worth tick up a little bit more.
We live in a world where multiple single individuals could solve such unsolvable problems as world hunger, diminishing fossil fuel resources, and the impending water crisis. We live in a world where the worst effects of climate change could have been averted if a handful of people made the right decisions.
But they don’t, and they never do. Wealth demands all, and it drains what soul remains. Empathy becomes poison. Humanity becomes a nuisance. Friendships become purely transactional. Self-worth becomes tied to net worth. And the almighty dollar reigns supreme.
This is not to say that a moderate, comfortable amount of wealth is perfectly acceptable. Especially in our present society, money is a necessary evil. But the evils of money only truly appear at the extremes of poverty and obscene wealth. I was born into the middle class and never had to worry about whether or not I would have my next meal. My wife, on the other hand, often went without dinner, water, and power. Those two worlds took some time to coalesce, but, fortunately, my parents did not raise a snob.
And yet, despite how different our upbringings were, neither of us could fathom the lifestyle of a multimillionaire – let alone a billionaire or trillionaire. What even millionaires forget is that they are far, far closer to homelessness than they are to billionaire status. The difference between one million and one billion is, after all, roughly one billion.
I remember learning that the lower-class white men of the antebellum American South were so rapidly supportive of slavery in part because they thought they would one day join the planter class. I believe a similar idea is at work in today’s society. The lower and middle class vote against their own interests – and for those of the upper class – because they are under the delusion that they, too, will one day join the upper class.
That just does not happen – at least, not on the scale that would warrant such consistent voting patterns.
The bottom line is that obscene wealth is immoral, no matter how you slice it. If there are problems to be solved, and you can afford to solve them without seeing the slightest change in your extravagant lifestyle, you owe it to humanity to go about solving those problems.
