brilliantly put, as per.

there have been so many situations where the difference between life and death depended on having money, the most obvious and recent being that of jews trying to escape hitler before the pogroms, that i don't find it surprising that money is seen as prime mover of happiness in most peoples' eyes.

also children absorb values through the skin, and if they see their parents mentioning money and its magical powers to bring more santa surprises to a household, 'we can't afford it, darling', etc, it also doesn't surprise me that, until they learn better, that economic success becomes, and remains, the main driver for most peoples' lives, and symbolises 'success' to the point of insanity, expressed as glitz and flash ala las vegas.

this message is driven home even more cruelly through the teenage years, when positional goods become crucial to a young consumer's identity, and still young enough to be hyper-impressed by the lures of advertising, while also having the most disposable income demographically.

society abounds with cautionary tales about money not being able to buy happiness, but their hale influence is dwarfed by the 'sauce bernays' laid on so thick in a new media world, from their tv to their googlephone.

so, ignorant, spellbound, and armed with cash, they advance into an entitled adulthood only to learn that few get to have 'fuck-you' money, once they have to move out of home and manage their own funds.

in 1500 you had to die to find out if you were going to heaven...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty