Why Can’t Some People Have Enough?

And why was I one of them?

For many years now, I have been boggled by the billionaire class. The unhinged greed and gluttony that seems to come with being a billionaire baffles me to a large degree. I understand wanting nice things in your life, but why do you need a giant mansion and a mega-yacht that has a smaller yacht housed in it? These things don’t make any sense to me.

So much of the modern world revolves around these billionaires, the 0.1% of the 0.1%. All the Elon Musks and Jeff Bezoses of the world, whose fortunes seem to grow larger with each passing day, and yet all that money will seemingly never satisfy their massive egos. They continue growing their businesses, buying out competitors, media companies, and anyone who dares stand against them up to and including the government. All at our expense.

For them, they will never have enough. Why would you even consider that they might ever have enough? There will always be more to get, more money to make, more businesses to start or buy, and more people to exploit. Why have three 10,000-square-foot mansions when you can have four? What’s the point of having a mega-yacht worth $500 million if you don’t try to force local governments to dismantle a historic bridge so you can move it?

And, while I wish I could say that this idea is solely the fault of America — the American Dream apparently says that the rich making money off the backs of the poors is the way to go — it’s not. Greed is a universal thing, and it occurs in every culture in the world, whether an individualistic one such as America or more collectivist cultures like those found in east Asia. Where there is money and power to be had, someone will be there to exploit everyone and everything to get it.

To some degree, the desire for more — more money, more power, more of everything — is a human one. We all want to be happy and healthy, and these days (at least in America), money buys those things. Most of us could use more money so we can stand half a chance of being happier and healthier, even if the money doesn’t necessarily make us that much wealthier (monetarily speaking) in the long run.

Sure, conventional wisdom says to invest extra money and build wealth, but with so many of us just trying to get by, it’s hard to go to the effort of investing money when it could be better utilized now. So many of us make so little, not enough to get by in the world, that an influx of money is likely to be almost immediately consumed with our vital needs, if not bills.

And yet, there is this incessant drive for more among many people. The hustle culture that has been hyped up by millionaires and billionaires as a way to get ahead in the world is, frankly, disgusting to me. It didn’t use to be, though. In the past, I spent my breaks and free time looking for ways to make more money. Whether it was writing stuff here, taking surveys, snapping pictures of my receipts, or picking up freelance work, I was always looking for the next way to make more money.

I learned a lot in that search. I learned how to invest wisely, I learned that real estate probably wasn’t a good venture for me (except in REITs), and I learned that spending my free time in survey apps to make an extra buck here and there wasn’t particularly lucrative. I also figured out that, while picking up freelance work was fairly lucrative, it was also stressful when it’s a thing that I do for my day job and as a side hustle.

And, eventually, after many years of bashing my head against the wall of hustle culture, I learned that I hate it. I hate the idea of busting my butt for 60, 70, or 80 hours a week just to get ahead in life. I’d much rather spend that time with my partner and my friends, relaxing and doing things that I enjoy. I want to be bad at my hobbies and not be forced to monetize them to make a buck.

So many of us just want to work our 40-hour jobs, go home to our families, and enjoy our weekends and holidays. The idea of having to hustle to get ahead isn’t appealing to a lot of us. However, for a whole lot of people, hustle culture is what is required to stay above water. If you’re not working two or three jobs 60 or 80 hours a week, you drown. Simple as that. For every slick business bro or #girlboss that is out there hustling seven days a week to bring in six figures, four people are working several low-wage jobs on the same schedule and just barely getting by.

However, the constant influx of societal pressure telling us that the only way to get ahead is to hustle is deafening. For someone like me, who works a professional 9–5 office job, I am constantly hearing from my professional circles that I won’t get ahead if I don’t hustle. You’ll never have enough if you don’t hustle. You’ll never be enough if you don’t hustle.

It has taken me over a decade of professional work (and a lot longer of my work life in general) to learn that I have enough right now and I am enough right now. I am only now coming to that realization — because I am prone to money panics when things get tight, it has been a hard-fought battle — but I think I have finally reached a balance point. It can be easy to be taken in by the hustle and hard to deprogram that mindset, so the fact that I’m getting there makes me feel good about myself

I will likely always worry about having enough money (it’s the American way, after all), but generally speaking, I feel confident in knowing that I have enough. A bit more money will always be helpful, as it would for 80% of Americans, but as it stands, I have enough right now to support my needs while also supporting many of my wants. It was a hard lesson to learn, but figuring out where my “enough” line was has made it easier.

Still, now that I’ve figured out what “enough” means to me, I am really starting to dislike a lot of things about the whole “greed is good” culture that still seems to permeate much of the world. What good does it do to have a hundred billion dollars in assets? How can you possibly spend it all in your lifetime? What good does it do to buy Twitter? Does it make you feel better about yourself, or does it just go into the hollow void in your soul that can never be filled?

There are so many better things that you can do with billions of dollars that will make the world a better place — why are you constantly seeking more? Why the endless pursuit of money and profits when it is so detrimental to everyone you cross paths with? Why not put that money to good use making the world a better place for all of us rather than just feeding the bottomless chasm that is your desire for more?

Why can’t you have enough?

Be well out there.

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