1. Spending years of your life earning enough money so that you can begin to live at some later date is not a good way to live. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, and even if it was, you will be different and everything and everyone around will be different.
2. Human beings are not meant to live away and disconnected from everyone else. We are community creatures, even if not always very social.
I do think people overall would be happier if it was culturally, socially desirable to be, or at least come across, as humble, and consume little, especially the more resources you have. Think Warren Buffett -- maybe he does spend a lot on himself, but at least he does not come across as if he does and he certainly does not brag about it. The opposite of Instagram culture. Anyone going against this would see fierce backlash, reputational damage etc.
A new religion of sorts.
Perhaps then people would not feel the need to keep up with the Jones' as much, always feeling as if they don't have enough, worrying about their status. Once people have enough, they can have more choice in what they work on, and perhaps the economy can restructure towards more activity that actually makes people's lives better.
As is, people can't seem to stop even using Meta products or X or buying Tesla cars, despite most people likely having poor opinions of the people at the top of these companies. I do not really understand why. It is easy, these companies have no moats, there are easy alternatives, and it would change the world.
I was recently thinking the time will come when not consuming becomes a product. Imagine being paid to not use power or to not take a shower so the power and water are available for the billionaire instead to swim in his heated pool.
Insanity that the most sane goal in a capitalist system is to make enough to leave the system. Surely we have enough resources to figure out a method of distribution that doesn't involve this much suffering?
