Monetary addiction

From metawiki
Everyone needs a few hundred boxes of crap

Modern society provides so much abundance that it is easy to get addicted to the accumulation of money and things. This is especially true when all of the incentives of capitalism encourage this.

“Some people are so poor, all they have is money.” -Patrick Meagher

Monetary addiction can take many forms, depending on how much money you actually have. Consumerism, hoarding, economic materialism, and other related symptoms are all expressions of monetary addiction, even if the user feeds their addiction with debt instead of profit.

Money : Success :: Pleasure : Flourishing

Using the old school SAT analogies and comparisons format, we see the connection between money and happiness more clearly.

Ask any philosopher and they will tell you there's more to human flourishing than pleasure and the pursuit of hedonism. Similarly, money is an essential component to success, but if you pursue money exclusively and forsake ethics, intellectual and artistic curiosity, altruism, relationships, and community, you will not be a successful human being, just a wealthy one.

Those who pursue pleasure or money exclusively will inevitably become addicted.

Consumerism and Hoarding

Hoarding is a uniquely modern phenomenon where the compulsion to accumulate possessions reaches debilitating levels.

"If you aren't in love with late-capitalism, why are you letting it store all its stuff at your place?" -Jennifer Michael Hecht

The only dragons to slay are billionaires

Hoarding of money is an affliction of the wealthy that so warps their perspective that many are able to justify profiting from mass suffering if it feeds their addiction. A happy life requires all of the stuff you need to be comfortable, and some stuff to have fun with. But beyond that any additional accumulation promises diminishing returns.

"I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too." -Steve Martin

Creating personal strategies to counter the materialistic urge is a necessary prerequisite to finding happiness in a capitalist society. Especially when the entire economy acts as a propaganda machine to try and make you buy more.

Social media has accelerated the trend towards consumerism. Legacy media celebrated the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, but social media celebrates the Lifestyles of Your Peers who are Richer and Having More Fun Than You. The pressure to keep up with the Joneses is so much higher when you don't just compare yourself to the people in your neighborhood; now it's a steady stream of the richest people in the richest neighborhoods in the world, all showing off for you.

See Economic Materialism and Consumerism

Inequality and Happiness

Studies have shown that localized income inequality is the biggest contributor to economic distress and the crime that results. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

When you constantly see people with more money than you, jealousy and resentment are natural by-products. This effect is amplified when the ultra-wealthy are neighbors you see regularly, rather than celebrities in the media. It's easy to see how those who are suffering from poverty can justify stealing from people who have more money than they could spend in multiple lifetimes.

Monetary Addiction

Capitalism's relentless incentives to pursue money, growth, and materialism, has caused a new outbreak of one the oldest forms of addiction--monetary addiction. It is easy to spot a victim of monetary addiction. The size of their portfolio is a key outward indicator. For those without sound financial strategies, the size of their hoard or their debt will let you know.

"Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but because we cannot satisfy the rich." -Anonymous

Billionaires are the ones whose addiction runs deepest. The amount of cognitive dissonance they must have to deal with when they make move after move that reduces the quality of life for their workers, and bribe politicians to make life worse for all of us, just to feed their addiction. This is why depression is so prevalent in the rich, even though it's more prevalent in the poor for different reasons that should be obvious. [8][9] The system of unequal, exploitative capitalism that incentivizes work and profits over happiness doesn't really work for anyone.

Once you get to self-actualization, stop climbing and start helping others.

The addiction model for income inequality offers a way to change the conversation about wealth, power, and happiness. If people start to feel sorry for the rich instead of the combination of worship, hate, and jealousy that they currently get, the social norms around ostentatious wealth will begin to change. Nobody wants to be pitied.

Monetary Addiction Treatment Centers are proposed as way to advanced the social goals of metaculture while providing a sustainable business model for the future.

The Ferengi depict a society where monetary addiction is encouraged instead of treated as mental illness.

Ferengi Rules of Acquisition - Complete List

Bootlickers

Sycophants who enable the worst behavior of money addicts in the hopes that they can live off of the scraps like a pilot fish are called bootlickers.

All Billionaires Are Bad

Even if a hoard is invested, it's still a hoard

The popular slogan used to decry the police state can be put to better use against the oligarchy. A public safety institution with strong internal controls to prevent corruption has its place in a thriving society. Billionaires do not. Having that much concentration of wealth in the hands of a single human is an insult to the concepts of balance of power and equal justice. It is impossible for any institution to treat a billionaire equally to an average person. They will always have the ability to pay fines as if they are nothing, use their influence to persuade if not bribe officials, and command more authority than anyone appointed to judge them. Their existence is anathema.

There is no economic benefit to these concentrations of wealth. Any business you can start with ten billion dollars you can start with one billion and the pooled investments of other venture capitalists. You'll just need to spread the rewards out a bit more rather than keeping it all for yourself. Boo-hoo. Society benefits, not just you.

In the "good old days" the top marginal tax rates were as high as 94%, representing an effective upper limit on income, if not wealth.[10] While loopholes and capital gains meant that few people actually paid the full amount, it did reflect an economic ethos that people should only be allowed to accumulate so much wealth and power in order for society to be free and equitable.

If you are fortunate enough to own or invent something that everyone needs, you should be able to make yourself fabulously wealthy. You should not be able to make yourself into an oligarch. At some point the extra profits enabled by a free and stable society should be reinvested in that society to ensure it continues to provide the economic conditions necessary for that profitability.

Can't Buy Me Cool

They say you can't buy love, but there are plenty of people willing to love any successful money addict, or at least pretend to convincingly. But there is one thing even more elusive than love and harder to buy, and that is to be see as "cool" by the public, especially young people.[11][12]

The harder you try, more money you spend, more platforms you take over and make into your personal propaganda machine--all of it simply adds to the air of desperation given off by any try-hard who doesn't realize that being effortlessly cool is an essential part of being cool.

Unless you got rich because you were a cool person who did cool stuff, you will have to live with the fact that you chose to forsake friends, family, community, and happiness in the relentless pursuit of your addiction, and the only people who think you are cool are bootlickers.

Alternatively, you are the spoiled rotten child of one of the aforementioned addicts, and the only people who think you are cool are bootlickers. Give away the inheritance that should have been taxed in the first place, and earn your respect and authority like the rest of us. This will inevitably lead to a more meaningful and fulfilling life.

Consume These Videos

These videos analyze the problems of consumerism and how it contributes to the mental health and environmental crises.

The bitter truth behind consumerism


How consumerism is ruining our planet and finances


Why consumerism is ruining your life


The Netflix documentary "Buy Now" does a great job of showing how Amazon employs complex algorithms to trick your brain into becoming addicted to impulse buying.

Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy - Official Trailer


Madonna - Material Girl