More Money, More Problems

Part of Your World (From The Little Mermaid)

It's the classic tale of a girl who wants more than what she already has, pining to live a different life (even though she's already a princess and has gadgets and gizmos a plenty). When I watched The Little Mermaid for the first time a few years ago, I found Ariel to be quite annoying. Most little girls grow up dreaming to become princesses and live in kingdoms with all the things they could ever ask for. But Ariel...no, she didn't want any of that. She wanted the exact opposite. All the money in the whole sea couldn't buy her happiness.  In her mind, Ariel just wanted to be human, be normal. In the end, her greed got the best of her and ended up getting her into a whole lot of trouble.

Most, if not all, humans struggle to find happiness from money. Rich or poor, it doesn't matter. We all want "more." In The Soul of Money, Lynne Twist brings up 3 central myths that surround our relationship with money:

1. There's not enough.
2. More is better.
3. That's just the way it is.

All three myths lead back to this idea that even if a person had all the money in the world, he or she would still not be satisfied. Money has become a driving force in all aspects of life, not just the economy. It brings out a green side of people, one that often gets out of hand, especially when there's more money at stake. For example, let's look at gambling. People bet money to win more of it. The more they bet, the higher they expect in return. But with it comes high risk as well. People with a lot of money put a lot more on the line. When they lose it, they continue to bet more, believing that they will eventually win it all back and even more. Gambling is an addiction because it's hard to stop. There's never a point where you can say, "That's enough," because there's always more money in the pot. Greed and fear are what push people to do whatever it takes to get their hands on money. As Twist puts it,

Some of the people with fortunes enough to last three lifetimes spend their days and nights worrying about losing money on the stock market, about being ripped off or conned or not havintg enough for their retirement. Any genuine fulfillment in their life of financial privilege can be completely eclipsed by these money fears and stresses.

Money is only the tangible problem. It symbolizes a deeper unrest that people have with their lives. There's always someone who has it better than them--someone with a bigger house, a nicer car, a better job. In the midst of all the fear and resentment, they forget about what they already have. Like Ariel, they become unappreciative and are stuck lusting after what they don't have. More times than not, the things they want don't turn out to be anything like they expected, leaving them further underwhelmed and disappointed and ultimately placing them in a never-ending cycle of greed and dissatisfaction.

The question we should be asking ourselves then is not how can we get more money, but what can we do with what we have to be happy.