Alberta West News: The compulsive craving for money overrides more important priorities needed for a healthy society

The Compulsive Craving for Money and Societal Health

Your observation points to a fundamental tension in modern economic systems: when the pursuit of financial gain becomes the dominant organizing principle of society, it can systematically undermine the very conditions necessary for human flourishing and collective wellbeing.

The Health Costs of Financial Obsession

The evidence linking money obsession to individual harm is substantial. Financial stress doesn't merely cause worry—it fundamentally damages both mental and physical health. People experiencing financial stress are twice as likely to report poor overall health and four times as likely to suffer from sleep problems, headaches and other illnesses. This stress manifests in serious conditions including heart disease, high blood pressure, depression and anxiety.expatwealthatwork+1

The relationship operates bidirectionally: money problems affect health, and poor health exacerbates financial difficulties, creating a vicious cycle. For Canadians specifically, nearly 48% have lost sleep because of financial worries, making money concerns the greatest source of stress—more than work, personal health or relationships.kmatherapy+2

Perhaps most troubling, high debt burdens significantly increase the risk of depression and suicidal thoughts, creating what researchers describe as "uninterrupted hopelessness" and profound shame that isolates individuals from support systems.cuimc.columbia+1

The Paradox of Prosperity Without Wellbeing

Research on the relationship between economic growth and happiness reveals a striking pattern called the Easterlin Paradox: while wealthier individuals report greater happiness than poorer individuals at any given moment, societies don't become happier as they grow richer over time. High-income countries that achieve rapid GDP growth do not experience corresponding increases in subjective wellbeing.steadystate+3

This suggests that beyond a certain threshold of material security, additional wealth fails to improve quality of life. For high-income nations, factors like healthcare quality, social support networks, freedom and trust have far more substantial impacts on population happiness than continued economic expansion. As one analysis noted, pursuing GDP growth becomes "madness if it does not serve our interests".economicsobservatory+1

Social Fragmentation and Inequality

The profit-driven economy creates structural forces that erode community bonds and social connection. When businesses prioritize short-term financial returns over social goals, worker protections and environmental stewardship are neglected. The financialization of the economy—where financial sector activities increasingly dominate—is linked to falling wage shares, rising wealth inequality, cuts to welfare expenditures and increases in precarious employment.bu+2

Income inequality itself drives loneliness and social isolation. Research across the United States and 16 European countries found that greater country-level income inequality was associated with higher prevalence of loneliness, even after controlling for individual socioeconomic factors. A unit increase in economic inequality increased the odds of loneliness by 53%. Those with lower income and lower occupational status are systematically more affected by loneliness than higher status groups.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih+1

The decline of community spaces—what sociologists call "third places"—is directly tied to capitalist development patterns. Commercialization, gentrification, suburbanization and the prioritization of profit over community engagement have systematically eliminated spaces where social bonds form. As physical communities deteriorate, people increasingly turn to digital substitutes that often deepen rather than resolve isolation.reddit+1

Materialism as Cultural Pathology

Consumer culture actively cultivates materialistic values that undermine mental health. Studies consistently show that people who prioritize material wealth and possessions over intrinsic values like relationships, personal growth and community service experience lower life satisfaction, increased stress, higher rates of depression and anxiety, and greater risk of substance abuse.studyfinds+3

Social media amplifies these effects dramatically. Research found that materialistic displays on social media are associated with lower life satisfaction, increased stress symptoms and higher risk of social media addiction. The constant social comparison fostered by curated online presentations of wealth creates cycles of dissatisfaction and envy.lifestyle.sustainability-directory+2

Children raised in environments focused on material success become less empathic, more competitive and are at higher risk for adjustment problems and substance abuse—contradicting assumptions that affluence protects against such issues. Research on affluent youth reveals that cultures of materialism carry the damaging message that wealth brings happiness, leaving those who are materially successful but emotionally struggling feeling they have "no right" to be unhappy, which only deepens isolation.stuyspec+2

The Hidden Costs of Profit Maximization

Economic systems focused on profit systematically externalize costs—meaning businesses impose expenses on society that aren't reflected in prices or corporate accounting. These externalities include environmental degradation, public health impacts, community destruction and resource depletion.levyinstitute+5

A profit-maximizing firm is likely to ignore negative externalities like pollution because addressing them reduces private profits, even though the social costs are substantial. This creates what economists call "social waste"—unnecessary costs imposed on society that benefit private interests but harm collective wellbeing. Examples include overproduction of unhealthy foods marketed to children, planned obsolescence, and speculative financial activities that create economic instability.openoregon.pressbooks+4

The financial sector provides a clear case study. Rather than efficiently allocating capital, the modern financial system has imposed "huge costs on the rest of society" through serial bubbles, crises and the prioritization of short-term speculation over productive investment. The social costs include mass unemployment, destroyed wealth, strained public services and increased inequality.econ.queensu+1

Structural Change vs. Individual Solutions

The evidence suggests that individual-level interventions—encouraging better financial management, promoting mindfulness or building resilience—are insufficient when systemic structures prioritize financial gain over human needs. As researchers note, framing social problems like loneliness as individual "epidemics" diverts attention from "deeper societal drivers of disconnection like economic inequality".psychologytoday

What's required instead is reorienting economic priorities. This means governments creating regulations that prioritize wellbeing over business profits, adopting measures beyond GDP to assess societal progress (as Bhutan did with its Gross National Happiness Index), implementing policies that reduce income inequality, and building economic models that internalize environmental and social costs rather than externalizing them.duurzamestudent+5

Some argue that profit motives can be harnessed for social good through proper incentives. However, the weight of evidence suggests that when profit maximization is the dominant goal, social and environmental costs are systematically neglected unless robust regulation intervenes.economicshelp+5

The Core Trade-Off

Your observation captures a fundamental reality: systems organized around the accumulation of money tend to sacrifice deeper human needs—meaningful relationships, community connection, environmental health, equality and psychological wellbeing—on the altar of financial returns. The research demonstrates that beyond ensuring basic material security, prioritizing economic growth and wealth accumulation does not improve human happiness and often actively undermines it.happierlivesinstitute+3

The craving for money isn't simply an individual psychological failing but a culturally cultivated orientation that serves economic structures requiring constant consumption and competition. Breaking this pattern requires recognizing that healthy societies depend on values and structures that explicitly prioritize human flourishing over financial metrics—a shift that challenges fundamental assumptions of contemporary economic organization.orlandojonesblog.wordpress+2

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Tuesday, November 18, 2025

The compulsive craving for money overrides more important priorities needed for a healthy society