Addiction to Money as Pathology.
Money, A Necessary Evil:
A Critical Analysis of the Most Powerful Drug
Figure 1: Man collecting money in his shirt |
When
it comes to money, we always want more. Surprisingly, the ‘money plague’ starts
at a very young age as naïve children place their baby teeth underneath their
pillow for a payment from the Tooth Fairy in exchange. Even though it is a
concept introduced and promoted by adults, this shows that addiction to money
can begin long before one realizes the importance of money in the economy.
Nowadays, we want the best cellphone, laptop, and clothes, and money gives us
the power to fulfill our obsession with these first-world luxuries. So “money,
is like a genie in a bottle, and it can morph into any shape and help us bring
our most startling dreams to life. It can buy stuff, status and sometimes even
people” (Dayton, 2011, para. 1). Although, what is “money”? According to
Sosteric (2016), “money is simply abstracted labor time as it allows us to
exchange labor time with each other efficiently and fluidly” (p. 15). In
simpler terms, when I use the money I earned at my job to purchase food, I
exchange my labor for food, and money simply lubricates that process as I can
use dollar bills to convert my eight-hour labor into food, gas, and rent. While
some people use money to fulfill their obsessions, others use it as a means to survive,
showing that money is not inherently evil, it is inherently social. It only
“facilitates evil since it facilitates the accumulation and control of labor
power ” (p. 20-21). Said accumulation occurs when one’s love for money distorts
their human nature and view of the world. The accumulation of labor power in a
monetized economy results in a dangerous addiction to wealth as there are no
limits to collecting money, and this negatively affects one’s relationships and
eventually becomes the cause of all of our local and global problems. Even
though money is unlike cocaine or heroin as it is not possible to physically
overdose, it is a frightening addiction that can be tragic for the mental
health of an addicts' “spouse, descendants, employees, and the larger
populations they impact” (Minel, 2018, p. 5).
While
it is not illegal to possess a large amount of money, a behavioral addiction
such as accumulating wealth is similar to drug addiction, as an addict will
feel like less of a person without their money. Not only is such an addiction
dangerous to the world around us, but it also heavily impacts our personality
and actions while physically altering the biology of our brain. An “obsessive
relationship with money can kick start the release of chemicals like dopamine
which produce a ‘high’ that is similar to the chemical high of a drug” (Dayton,
2011, para. 4). This chemical imbalance allows the person to develop a
tolerance for money, where enough is never enough. To feel the same “high” as
before, one will need to accumulate more and more wealth. This addiction
primarily targets those who have experienced financial setbacks, felt inferior,
faced social rejection, or humiliation due to their lack of money (Minel, p.
3). This trauma arouses motivation to obtain money through any means possible,
and despite its innocent beginnings, it can turn into a destructive journey.
Soon an addict's relationship with money becomes the pinnacle of their life.
This results in behaviors such as excessive risk-taking, overspending, and
workaholism. Most addicts are in denial and will justify their actions: “to
cover financial needs, to access comfort, afford luxury, to invest, and secure
the future” (p. 2). By blaming circumstances outside of their control, an
addict will hide their addiction from themselves and the world, and continue to
give in to this endless craving. For instance, Polk (2014) wrote: “In my last
year on Wall Street my bonus was $3.6 million — and I was angry because it wasn’t
big enough... I wanted more money for the same reason an alcoholic needs
another drink: I was addicted” (para. 1). While Sam was able to step back and
reevaluate his priorities, that does not mean every addict can do the same. The
addiction to money is a global issue that starts at a young age, so to reverse
the damage, we need to get educate the general population about the dangers of
encouraging the hoarding of money. Of course education is not accessible all
over the world, but we need to incorporate this education where we can so we
can start somewhere. The addiction to wealth begins from and impacts us at a
sociological and biological level, so get yourself or others the help they need
(Sosteric, 2020, p. 27) before they become like Sam Polk (2014), “a giant
fireball of greed” (para. 13).
In
today’s world, it is difficult to find someone who has not shown signs of money
addiction. I am ashamed to admit that when I explore possible career
opportunities, my initial web search includes ‘salary’ rather than my
interests. Unsurprisingly this is the case for many individuals and this
attitude towards money slowly bleeds into their daily interactions with friends
and family. Addiction to money as pathology draws people closer as they want to
be a part of the rich inner circle. Although, this closeness can lead to
feelings of jealousy within family relationships, as people start to judge each
other based on their financial capabilities rather than through a lens of
deeper values and worth (Dayton, 2011, para. 6). Also, money addicts are
dependent on having control over other people as the newfound success and sense
of superiority helps them to hide feeling out of control or frustrated. Also,
there might be other vulnerabilities such as drug, retail, gambling, or alcohol
addiction. Although this pretense of control and independence evokes feelings
of “neediness”, and the addict fully indulges themselves in denial as they try
to ignore these feelings by blaming others for their actions. The addicts also
engage themselves in active self-delusion as “they can see that something
important has changed but are just blithely ignoring it” (Sosteric, 2016, p.
40). The Baker’s story from Sosteric’s book, The Rocket Scientists' Guide to
Money and the Economy: Accumulation and Debt (2016), captures the greed and
ignorance associated with an addiction to wealth as an individual named Joe
increases the price of his bread since he sees no problem with “taking a little
profit and accumulating a little extra labor” (p. 28). While everyone else in
the community is exchanging their labor fairly, Joe now possesses more money
and power over them, which means he can hire cooks, maids, gardeners, and
essentially buy other people’s labor. By declaring his “profit” as a part of
‘nature’s evolutionary plan and his divine right’, the addict finds a way to
avoid the blame for any possible havoc in the community as it is simply part of
“God’s plan”. Over time, Joe’s attempts to censor and obscure his secret to
“profit” make everyone else feel confused, and uncomfortable, causing a rift in
their relationship. This shows that by neglecting the healthy flow of money in
the community and choosing to value wealth over his trusted acquaintances, Joe
upset his relationship with the community, and his greed started the downfall
of a society that was previously working in harmony without any issues.
While
the “Baker’s story” begins at an individual level, the problem with the
accumulation of wealth is shown at a greater level as Joe’s experience with
money simultaneously affects the socioeconomic system of his community. He increases the price of his product for
some profit, but by hoarding labor power, he lessens the amount of money that
is in circulation in the economy. Over time, he gains profit while the rest of
society has to learn to live on less money. Also, by introducing the concept of
taxation, and product differentiation, which is a “marketing strategy that
strives to distinguish a company’s products from the competition” (Kopp, 2020,
para. 1), those at the bottom of the social ranks are hit the hardest and fall
even further down the pit of desperation and oblivion, while those at the top
continue to look for more ways to increase their “progress” (i.e., more
accumulation). We slowly start to see how the uneven flow of money caused by
accumulation not only causes “massive distortions in human nature and human
activity, but also causes massive failures in the general economic fibre of
life on this little global community we call Earth” (Sosteric, 2016, p. 23). So
what happens when poor people suffer due to a lack of resources? Nothing. The
rich simply turn the other cheek and ‘eat cake’ while the poor try to convince
themselves they are “God’s people” (Sosteric, 2016, p. 53) and lose each other
to poverty, starvation, and eventually death. Most people accept their
situation because they believe in each other and God. This is also seen in European
history, where:
The divine right of kings asserted that kings derived their authority from God and could not, therefore, be held accountable for their actions by any earthly authority such as a parliament…Although events like the Industrial Revolution (1775-83), French Revolution (1789) and the Napoleonic Wars deprived the doctrine of most of its remaining credibility. (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019, para. 1)
The totalitarian
discourse about the relation between religion and wealth is one that has spread
locally and globally, and it seems that to survive in this fast-paced world, it
is necessary to earn a lot of money while being in constant competition with others.
This affects everyone as we all battle each other during every stage of our
life and compete over high-school grades, better-paying jobs, bigger houses,
and fancy cars. While we compete to make it to the top in fear of falling to
the bottom, those at the bottom are already suffering and some can no longer
afford the necessities of life. Although, if there was no greed for money and
we could not get “high” off of money, then we would be able to barter our
resources with each other without worrying about losing money and ourselves to
the dark world of modern economics.
Unfortunately, the problem with a money addiction does not stop at a local level as every local economic system in the world is connected globally. According to Sosteric (2017), “the 62 richest people on the planet have more money than 3 billion people combined” (6:00), so essentially the 62 richest people have the power to buy the labor of three billion people on this planet, which is a frightening reality. The addiction to accumulation often causes individuals to go to great extents to protect and increase their wealth, even if that means engaging in illegal and unethical practices. The most common trend is the 1% stealing money from everyone else, and making it look like they are doing us a favor (Atkins, 2014). By introducing planned obsolescence and product lifecycle (fast fashion), the top 1% designs products with shorter shelf lives, and continue to release newer expensive products, all in attempts to increase their wealth. This way people at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder need to work harder and longer to be able to replace their products and will work exploitive jobs to afford the necessities of life. For instance, both Apple and Samsung were rightfully convicted and fined when it was discovered that certain smartphone software updates hurt the performance of the device, thus encouraging the purchase of newer phone models (Gibbs, 2018). Aside from being a financial problem, it is also an environmental issue as “keeping old phones around longer significantly reduces your phone’s environmental footprint” (Nash, 2019, para. 5), thus showing that these corporations harm us on a macro-level. Also, both companies claim that they have a “zero-tolerance policy” towards underage labor and conduct regular and rigorous audits of their supply chain, yet were unable to state the source of minerals (i.e., cobalt, which is a vital component of batteries) they used. Wakefield (2016) states that:
UNICEF estimates that approximately 40,000 children are working in mines (for cobalt) across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Mark Dummett, a business and human rights researcher said that mining was "one of the worst forms of child labor". He added: "The glamorous shop displays, and marketing of state-of-the-art technologies are a stark contrast to the children carrying bags of rocks and miners in narrow man-made tunnels risking permanent lung damage. Companies whose global profits total $125 billion cannot credibly claim that they are unable to check where key minerals in their productions come from". (para. 21-24)
These mining companies also
contribute to many pollution issues that have significant impacts on water and
aquatic ecosystems which results in birth defects (Kelly, 2020, para. 1). By engaging
in illegal activities in third-world countries like DRC, India, and China, many
big corporations escape legal punishment and engage in colonial exploitation
where they “exploit a countries population as labor and its natural resources
as raw material” (Blakemore, 2019, para. 1). To conclude, the ripple effects of
money addiction are seen globally and soon become the root of most local and
global problems throughout the world.
Through
this paper, I explored the effects of money addiction from an individual level
to a global level to showcase the “evil” which is associate with money.
Unfortunately, this is a necessary evil, as our world would not function
without money. Sosteric’s (2017) video offers great solutions to the problem of
‘debt’ such as education, debt jubilee, and revolution while also providing a
solution to the issue of accumulation. He claims that is necessary to limit/end
accumulation, and that can be achieved by placing a limit on the amount of
money one can earn. With such a limit, the chances of developing an addiction
to money would decrease greatly and this would decrease many global issues that
occur due to this addiction. A recent study shows that the money “satisfaction
point” occurs at $95,000 (with variation across world regions) so Jeff Bezos,
Warren Buffet and Mark Zuckerberg may experience the same amount of happiness
as a local restaurant manager (Jebb et al., 2018). Not only could implementing
this knowledge in our life make the world a better place, but it would also essentially
make us happier by affecting us mentally and therefore having a domino
effect on our relationships with friends, family, and the community.
Currently, we can educate young children and promote healthy lifestyles about
money, while striving for a content life rather than one of desires which come
at the cost of others’ livelihood.
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