abundance vs scarcity: how wealth shapes our feelings

"Poverty is a state of mind more than a matter of income." — Herbert N. Casson

Money is a funny thing. Most people say they love having it, but unless they have enough, they just don't feel good about money at all. It's only when you have all the money you need that you can really feel positive about it.

So how you feel about money depends a lot on how much of it you have. If you don't have all you need or want, then it's hard to feel truly good about money overall. The bad feelings of not having enough tend to outweigh the good feelings.

If you look around the world, it's clear the majority of people don't feel great about money. And that's because most of the world's money and wealth is held by a small percentage of people - maybe 10% or less of the total population.

The key difference between the wealthy and everyone else isn't that they love money more. It's that for the rich, the good feelings they get from having ample money outweigh any bad feelings. But for most others lacking that abundance, the negative feelings about not having enough tend to dominate.

So in the end, feelings towards money largely come down to simply having all that you need. Once basic needs are met, then positive feelings can win out. But until then, no matter how much you may love the idea of money, the negative emotions of lacking it will likely prevail. It's a matter of quantity leading to quality of emotions.

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