"Humans are a deeply social animal—and this fact has been true across our entire evolutionary history. So valuing relationships and connections with others makes a lot of sense," Dr. Geher, from the State University of New York at New Paltz, told Bored Panda via email.
Despite the fact that many people would choose love over wealth if they were forced to choose, money still plays an important role in our lives.
"This said, at some point in our evolutionary history, money entered the scene. And money allowed people to differentiate themselves from others—often securing power along the way. And people like power!"
Dr. Geher explained that money can lead to outcomes such as having power and high status. Ironically, the professor said, these things are "likely valued because these features are helpful in advancing in social contexts."
He said: "In some ways, money and human relationships are actually related to one another—they are not completely independent facets of the human experience. And this connection may help us to understand why there is often tension in people’s lives when it comes to balancing fiscal versus social issues."
According to the professor, it would be "a questionable stance" to assume that someone is a "bad" person just because they're rich. "I personally don’t think that people come in 'good' versus 'bad' varieties. A lot of research on the importance of situational factors in shaping human outcomes backs this point up," Dr. Geher explained to Bored Panda.
"That said, money may create situations that cultivate such questionable attributes as greed, status-seeking, and perhaps arrogance—none of which is a good look." However, he added that "wealthy people, like all people, show extraordinary variability from one another and we need to really appreciate this fact (regardless of our own financial situation)."
The psychology professor noted that money and power "famously go hand-in-hand" with social features like envy. "The tendency for people to envy what others have goes back deep in evolutionary time. And just as arrogance and greed are not exactly a good look, envy is really not much better," Dr. Geher said.
"As I see it, striving to become rich in love and relationships and in 'the good life' in general is the best way to divert someone from focusing energies negatively on such things as envy of others," he suggested. "At the end of the day, love and social connections are what matters. And truly understanding and appreciating this fact can go a long way toward fending off the beast that is envy."
Research conducted at Purdue University in 2018 found that there’s a certain point where more wealth doesn’t make you significantly happier.
“It’s been debated at what point does money no longer change your level of well-being. We found that the ideal income point is $95,000 for life evaluation and $60,000 to $75,000 for emotional well-being. Again, this amount is for individuals and would likely be higher for families,” the lead author, Andrew T. Jebb, said.
These sums also vary depending on the part of the world. For example, in wealthier countries, they’ll be higher than in poorer regions.
How you take care of your health, the sense of purpose you have, and the quality of your relationships have a huge impact on your happiness and quality of life, too. However, one of these factors is far more important than the rest.
As reported by CNBC, an 85-year study conducted by Harvard unequivocally found that it’s our positive relationships that keep us happier and healthier, not our career achievements, money, or diets.
It’s perfectly normal to feel infuriated when you read about wealth inequality and injustice at home and abroad. It can make you feel as though no matter how much time, energy, and tears you put into your job and side hustle, you’ll never have the kind of financial stability that you dream of.
Owning a family home is still a pipe dream for many families. Others, with middle-income salaries, as CNN notes, can’t find property to buy even if they could technically afford it.
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Though becoming extremely rich depends a lot on luck and perseverance, you can still live a high-quality, comfortable life without being a billionaire or even a millionaire. We don’t write that in an off-hand kind of way, either.
Of course, having money provides you with more opportunities, power, and clout in life. You can eat better food, save your precious time by hiring experts to do many things for you, afford a better education for your children, and fund the worthwhile causes you personally care about.
However, with riches comes a lot of additional pressure. For one, whether you’ve inherited your family’s company or started up your own, you now have a literal business empire to run. That means making tough decisions, worrying about investors, and managing hundreds or possibly even thousands of employees around the globe.
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While some people would embrace this kind of responsibility, this sort of entrepreneurial and corporate rat race isn’t for everybody. If you’re earning millions and billions, then it’s likely that you’re also sacrificing something to focus on your work, whether that’s your health, spiritual needs, or time spent with the people you love.
It’s easy to envy billionaires and assume that all of them are ‘lazy’ or ‘evil’ or take advantage of their employees or don’t deserve their wealth. It might be true in some cases and it’s vital to call this sort of behavior out, but not everyone who’s rich or inherits wealth is automatically a bad person. Some folks really do deserve what they’ve built up, they donate to charitable causes and treat others with respect. Others do not. It all depends on the individual and their values.
Generally speaking, many people would probably agree that they’d love to see their efforts rewarded. And they’d also like to leave what they’ve built up over their lifetimes to their children and grandchildren.
