Included in this insightful proposal is not only the potential role played by accumulated wealth in establishing a legacy, but also the physical (and ritualistic) nature of this accumulation. As in the case of Scrooge McDuck, we secretly would love to swim in our wealth and have duckets dripping from our shoulders. At a very primitive level, money is meant not to be invisible, but highly visible—at least to ourselves. Furthermore, generativity requires that this money be made available to other people. With wealth we “should” either give some of it away to “charity” or set it up in a trust fund for our children.
Narcissism
The extension of life by the accumulation of money seems quite “normal” and justifiable, given that human beings seek some sense of immortality and need “new rituals because they [give] order and form to society and magically [tie] the whole world of experience together.” (Becker, 1975, p. 75). However, for some people, the need to accumulate money becomes something more than just a search for societal stability (present) and existential legacy (future); there is a pathological desire to stretch one’s sense of self beyond the confines of one’s current self. As noted in the myth of Narcissus, there is a sense of self-admiration that locks certain people (the narcissists) into the ongoing and obsessive admiration of self (as a reflection in a pool of water). In contemporary times, the pool in which one’s image is reflected can be expanded and replicated in the pool to be found in an accumulation of money.
Morgan Housel (2020, p. 106) offers his own opinion regarding this obsession with the accumulation of money:
“Past a certain level of income, what you need is just what sits below your ego.
Everyone needs the basics. Once they’re covered there’s another level of comfortable basics, and past that there’s basics that are both comfortable, entertaining, and enlightening.
But spending beyond a pretty low level of materialism is mostly a reflection of ego approaching income, a way to spend money to show people that you have (or had) money.
Think of it like this, and one of the most powerful ways to increase your savings isn’t to raise your income. It’s to raise your humility.
When you define savings as the gap between your ego and your income you realize why many people with decent incomes save so little. It’s a daily struggle against instincts to extend your peacock feathers to their outermost limits and keep up with others doing the same.
People with enduring personal finance success—not necessarily those with high incomes—tend to have a propensity to not give a damn what others think about them.”
While I would agree with Housel’s assessment of the ego-driven nature of this obsession with the accumulation of money, I would disagree regarding the lack of concern for how other people think about them. Money is directly related to a sense of not just self-worth, but also the esteem granted by other people. As Donald Trump disclosed many years ago, wealth may be the only scoreboard in town and the financial score showing up on this board is meant for everyone to see. I can appreciate Housel’s statement about true wealth not being visible; however, at the extreme, when narcissism is running wild, real (and fictitious) wealth is on full display.
