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Why does society have such a high regard for money?

By: Mary Kerr

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Society since the beginning of time has had a conflicting relationship with money. On one hand, books going back thousands of years, the Bible for instance, say that loving money is evil, and that we should spurn such aspirations. On the other hand, those same books show what the people actually do is lust after gold and silver on a daily basis. So, why are people doing the exact opposite of what they are taught?

It all comes down to human nature. Economics teaches us that people have unlimited wants and desires, and judging from the way people act, that would certainly seem to be the case. If one has a nice car, one wants two nice cars. If one has two, one wants three etc. Of course that is not true for everyone, but certainly from the way people are portrayed in society on the news and internet, it appears that everyone is a money grubber.

And that is part of the problem. Newspapers and television are there to effectively sell their advertisers products. Marketing does a great job at making people feel that they are falling behind their neighbors or creating insecurities that make people want to buy a bunch of stuff they do not need with money they do not have. Then, once those people buy something, the magic keeping up with the Joneses effect takes place whereby neighbors want so at least seem as affluent as their friends so they have to buy even more.

This is just human nature. Everyone wants to feel special and better than someone, this is just the ego. And since we humans are realistically never going to live above that level for the most part, consumerism will just get worse and worse. Take a look at countries like China and India which are now trying to live the American way. People don’t care what they are taught, they still live on the basic level of satisfying their basic needs for the most part.

Is there and solution to this problem. I would like to be the most positive person of the bunch and say people will become enlightened and give up their money seeking ways and start thinking about their fellow men and doing good. Unfortunately, history is not on our side. If we have not figured out how to stop obsessing over money in the last several thousand years, is it realistic to think we as a society will suddenly make that turn now?

One would think that with today's instant information and better education and communication that the world would change for the better. Unfortunately the forces of better communication also can work against us as more and more advertising makes people desire even more products that they really do not need. So, I do not hold out too much hope that people as a society will go back to traditional values of thrift and self denial. It would be nice, but let us face it, that is just not how people are programmed, and most have no desire to become enlightened.

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