tom2000  

In today's society great importance is placed on how much money you have, and regardless of what you are earning, most people feel as though they don't have enough. As a result, people work harder and harder to earn more and more money, but what do they do with that money and why do they really want it?

Why Do People Want Money?

The basic function of money is to buy things so that you can survive and maintain a certain standard of living. This latter aspect of money is one of the key determining factors which can determine how much money someone has, and what they do with that money. But first, let's have a look at the first reason why people need money, survival.

Money To Survive

If you didn't have any money you would find it very difficult to survive, as you would have to grow your own food and build your own shelter. Money is therefore essential to survival because without it most people would starve to death.

Since most people in westernized society have enough money for food and shelter, this is obviously not a major reason why people work so hard to make more and more money. Otherwise they would be content with what they earn, as long as it provided them with food and shelter.

Standard Of Living

The main reason why people work so hard for money is to maintain a certain standard of living. For example, if you want to live in a big house and own an expensive car, you will try your hardest to earn the amount of money required to possess those things.

Therefore someone who settles for a lower standard of living will generally aspire to earn less money. Whereas a person who wants a higher standard of living will generally aspire to earn more money.

The Media & Money

One of the major factors which determines how high or low a person's standard of living is, is the media. This may sound like a strange thing to say, but if you think about it then it becomes obvious why.

The media and advertising tell us repeatedly what we should own and what we should want to have. People are therefore heavily influenced by the media, because they then work hard to earn money so that they can possess the products they are made to believe they must own.

Usually these products confer some type of perceive benefit to the consumer, such as increased social status. As a result, money is earned no longer for the possession of essential items, but rather for the items which fulfil the unfulfilled needs of the consumer.

Therefore the more unfulfilled needs a person has (the lower their self esteem), the more easily they will be manipulated by the media and the higher their perceived standard of living will become (the standard of living they desire to have).

Unfortunately for most people, this standard of living is never realized, but instead only gets them caught in a cycle of debt as they go from product to product desperately trying to fulfill their unfulfilled needs.

So don't let the media tell you what you should own. Rather work on developing your self esteem so that you can make yourself immune to their adverts, because doing so is one of the best ways to increase your net worth and your standard of living.

Tom

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