4 ms·
"the proverbial "rat race" isn't really about about money; it's about social status. Most people don't real care about money, they just need it to buy status sy
by restalis 8y ago
"the proverbial "rat race" isn't really about about money; it's about social status. Most people don't real care about money, they just need it to buy status symbols with."
My thought is that money helps covering the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Social status is present only in the upper half of it. This should mean that people may care about money but not yet about status. (And as a fun fact, the causes that leads to a "rat race" are harder to ignore as one climbs down on the same Maslow's pyramid, which at least in theory means that it should happen less for social status than for other things.)
- projektir 8y agoThis assumes Maslov's hierarchy is correct, which there isn't actually any evidence for.
- woodandsteel 8y agoAnd yet if you look at your own behavior and that of others you know, I bet you will find you are motivated at least considerably by the sorts of needs that Maslow described. And when you have to choose between them, I bet you tend to do so roughly according to the set of priorities that his hierarchy presents. Unless, of course, you are a really odd person.
- woodandsteel 8y agoAdam Smith said that when people want to earn more money than needed for a physically-comfortable existence, it is to achieve esteem over others. Note, by the way, that there is also esteem from being similar to others who like you, and esteem from meeting an absolute standard that others might or might not match too.