The Root of All Evil?
- William & Associates Counselling Services
- 17 hours ago
- 5 min read
History, in all cultures and all eras assign a value judgment to money.
Having money is evil.
Being poor is virtuous.
Doing without creates character.
Too much money is inherently corrupting.
Anyone can be rich if they work hard enough.
People are poor because they won't work hard enough to be rich(er).
Wealth earned is better than inherited wealth.
Amassing wealth is immoral.
Poverty is the consequence of lack of character and poor choices.
"Affluenza" is a portmanteau combining affluence (the state of having abundant wealth, property, or material goods) and influenza (a highly contagious illness caused by a virus) and defined as, “a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste, resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.”
In wealthy nations where equality is prized in concept if not so much in practice, the pursuit of money, and the desire to amass more, is disdained as 'consumerism,' while secretly envied. In countries and cultures where poverty is rampant, pursuit of wealth, and thus the means to escape poverty, is encouraged, and successes are celebrated.
Social psychologists have researched the differences between the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy for decades, and it might not be surprising to you to learn that rich people think of themselves as different from the 'riffraff,' and the wealthier an individual is, the more likely they are to be disconnected from what those without money call, "the real world." This seems to translate into less empathy, less awareness of the emotional states of others, and less likelihood of being aware of the impact of their own behaviour on others. Essentially, they model a version of hyper-independence and navigate the world very differently as a result of access to virtually unlimited funding.
Wealth (and the pursuit of it) has been linked with immoral behaviour—and not just in movies like The Wolf of Wall Street.*
That's not to say that wealthy people are all sociopathic. Far from it. Having money, however, often insulates the rich from many of the consequences of their actions, and this reality is usually evident in observable behaviour differences between the rich and the poor.
But here's the thing. Money is neutral - neither good nor bad. It is a commodity or resource that can become anything. $10 becomes a bougie Starbucks coffee. $100 becomes a new pair of jeans or a nice date. $150 becomes schooling for a year for a child in an orphanage in Kigali. $1,000,000 becomes a house... a boat... a business... the yearly operating budget of a non-profit in India... or a huge party in Monte Carlo during the Formula One race.
Get this. Where money is an equalizer across cultures and economic stratum is how it affects mental health. Whether a surfeit of money or an extreme lack, people worry about money. We expect people without money to worry about it. Where the next meal is coming from. How to pay for a child's school fees. Whether or not there's enough money to pay the rent this month.
What might be surprising, is like Scrooge McDuck, some people can be sitting on more money than they could spend in a lifetime, and still spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about not having enough. This issue is not about the amount of money one does or doesn't have, it's what people believe about money that matters.
Our mental health is profoundly impacted by the beliefs we have about money, and our capacity to access resources in times of need. When we believe we don't have enough to cover an unexpected expense or emergency, it doesn't matter how much money we actually have. We live anxiously, preoccupied with our money, or lack of it.
Hetty Green (1834-1916) was dubbed the "Witch of Wall Street" by J.P. Morgan. Despite having a fortune amassed through shrewd real estate deals, rental properties, and investments, Ms Green lived like she had NO money. She owned two dresses, alternating them and thrifting for more only when the current dresses were so threadbare as to be indecent. She stole soap from local hotels to wash her clothes in a bucket, ate for free at soup kitchens all over New York, and bathed all her life in cold water "to save money."
The United States dollar was still linked to the Gold Standard at this time - being physically backed by an equivalent quantity of stored gold bullion - so additional money could not be printed for all the money she [Hetty] had hoarded. While the Great Depression had multiple causes when it occurred, it is thought that the amount of money she had physically taken out of circulation made securing notes even scarcer. She effectively WORSENED THE DEPRESSION FOR EVERYONE by her actions. ~Brett Strickland (author's emphasis)
Eventually Hetty forced the bank where she kept her money to allow her to move into a vault, rent free by threatening to move her money to a competitor. She resided in the vault until her death. At the time of her death, Hetty's fortune exceeded 2.3 billion in 2023 dollars.
At the other end of the spectrum are people like Jeff and Lauren Sanchéz Bezos, who have by their own admission adopted the "Luxe lifestyle." This is a way of living that leans into the excesses of life that being a billionaire can afford. Multiple homes, yachts, cars, jets, and jewelry, all flaunted regularly in all the bougie places in the world. The ultra-wealthy couple are not stealing the symbols of wealth - they buy them.
What the Bezos have in common with Hetty Green is how money drives their observable behaviour. Excess on opposite ends of the spectrum, driven by an internal framework of beliefs that give money - neutral currency - a meaning weighted with some form of judgment.
On a much less splashy scale, these beliefs play out on every strata of culture ...as does the worry. It is the beliefs and attitudes we have about money that impact our mental health and wellbeing. Not enough, too much, deprivation, excess... doesn't really matter. If what drives you to do what you do is a mindset about money that keeps you from being satisfied, content, courageous, hopeful, or pro-active, your mental health will suffer in ways you may not have recognized.
Yet.
Check out our IG feed @kelownatherapyco for more on the connection between money and mental health
Financial Health, Mental Wealth (podcast)
Mind Money Balance (podcast)
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