Why has EXCESS money and super wealthy become such an important thing the last few years? Has society failed?

[Anonymous]

So I realize money has always been important obviously but the last few years it seems like money is the most important thing focused on in the world and the more money someone has, the more important they are and the more popular they are and the more followers they have

It's no longer enough to have a house or car, but it's "cool" if people have multiple huge houses and as many cars and yachts as possible

There is just a pure obsession with excess and money the last few years

Forget the poor, even the poor are following the rich and making the rich richer and more money by being obsessed with the riches lives and following them

When did this get so out of hand that money is almost looked upon as a necessary character trait (obviously it's not a character trait but the ability to make money

And I don't mean a million here or there. You need at least 50 million to begin to impress and the more the better

Why has rich and money become more impressive and more important than helping others and researching and finding cures for diseases and other noble things?

Society has failed I think

Lastly, I'll point out that even if someone says well they are smart to have earnt it.. well no, even someone if left an inheritance and that's the sole reason for being wealthy, they are loved and people bow to them. Even if it's from most likely illegal earnings, no one seems to care. They only care about the money and how many cars and dresses there are. See my point?

Updates

4 mo

I guess I mean money seems to have become the number one thing people look for in following others or thinking they have achieved something in life. Money, that's it.

[NamerOfStars]

It hasn't- it's ALWAYS been important. The search for status is of critical social importance to anyone who's not a hermit or an autist. Skill, physical power, wisdom, and physical attractiveness are things one can't do much about, but possession of resources is a different matter- what has changed in recent years (well, recent centuries, but it's been building up VERY quickly with relatively few setbacks) is a vastly increased mobility. It's entirely possible (if not very likely) for a person of even the most humble origins to rise to a position of great wealth.

This isn't evidence that society has failed, it's evidence that it's succeeded. Human nature doesn't change simply because your odds of being eaten by a lion or dying in childbirth have fallen to almost zero.

[Asker]

I don't see that placing money and excess wealth and excess assets above finding cures for cancer or helping the starving succeeding

[NamerOfStars]

That's because you're taking a collectivist perspective, and that's not how life works.

[Asker]

So can you explain why EXCESS tens to hundreds of millions of dollars of personal wealth is better and doing more good for society than finding cures for cancer. As I said in my question, excess. Massive excess. Not simply small wealth. Why do we bow down an award and honor those who have ammassed huge fortunes that could never be spent in a hundred lifetimes

[Asker]

You have had the best answer so far for sure but I'm still not following :)

[NamerOfStars]

Yes- that's why I DID. Here it is in simpler terms: humans are a product of evolution. Praising those who successfully do things that improve the odds of survival of the species makes people more likely to do those things, thus promoting species survival. Natural selection doesn't end at the individual level; that's why autists are still around.

You want to defy nature? Reject natural selection and substitute something more egalitarian? Cool- but then the pursuit of wealth is STILL a better option, because wealth isn't like oil or uranium; it's not a resource with universal-scale limits, and the wild chasing of it is what produces more. If you're more concerned with equality of wealth than of individual amount of it, then your position works; if you're happier with you and your neighbor both having ten units than you having five and him a hundred. But if you go beyond that? If you actually WANT cures for cancers, you're going to need boatloads of research funding. If you want ecological shitholes to be able to sustain population levels like the Shenandoah valley, you're going to need far, far more. A basic examination of economic history shows that people give less to causes like that when they themselves don't have it to spare- innovation comes more from excess than from need.

So yes, excess. Because society IS better off with its Donald Trumps and Oprah Winfreys if the benefit is golden rice. We have the Salk vaccine, the extinction of wild smallpox, and one of the lowest rates of environmental impact relative to our biomass of any species on the planet because of rich people, not poor ones.

Want to see the impact of communal prioritization over individual? Go visit Burundi.

[Asker]

You explained it well and I understand however you did miss what I was saying.

I am not against someone having more than someone else. I'm not against capitalism. My question is actually more why do people bow down at the feet of the super wealthy and watch their shows and contribute to making them even wealthier while they are starving themselves. For example people who are starving themselvrs yet will watch the kardashians thereby contributing to more wealth to the kardashians. It doesn't make sense to me

[Anonymous]

You used to have to produce something to make money. Doctors were considered a respected occupation.

Now with today's youth if you work for money you're considered a fool. Social media influences are respected positions. And you get a million views for sucking on a Tide pod.

People have lost complete understanding of the value of money. But how you going to convince someone that scubbing toilets builds character when Kim Kardashian has 1.6 billion dollars for... what exactly?

[Anonymous]

Cash Rules Everything Around Me.

[Asker]

That's fair but that doesn't answer any question I had in my question

[Anonymous]

Cash is king as they say

[Asker]

That doesn't answer any of my questions