In The Atlantic this month, Graeme Wood has an article about a study undertaken by Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. It’s a study about how the rich feel about being rich, “an extraordinary sample of confession, memoir, and apologia” from the super-rich, as the center’s director, the sociologist Paul G. Schervish, puts it. As Wood writes, “the respondents turn out to be a generally dissatisfied lot, whose money has contributed to deep anxieties involving love, work, and family. Indeed, they are frequently dissatisfied even with their sizable fortunes. Most of them still do not consider themselves financially secure; for that, they say, they would require on average one-quarter more wealth than they currently possess. (Remember: this is a population with assets in the tens of millions of dollars and above.) One respondent, the heir to an enormous fortune, says that what matters most to him is his Christianity, and that his greatest aspiration is “to love the Lord, my family, and my friends.” He also reports that he wouldn’t feel financially secure until he had $1 billion in the bank.”
As Wood reports, the study makes “a compelling case that being fantastically wealthy—especially when the wealth is inherited rather than earned—is not a great deal more fulfilling than being merely prosperous. Among other woes, the survey respondents report feeling that they have lost the right to complain about anything, for fear of sounding—or being—ungrateful.” The rich worry about their children (either that they will become spoiled, or be resentful if they are not spoiled); that outside relationships have been influenced by and may be contingent on having wealth. Psychologist Robert A. Kenny “says that extreme wealth can take away some of the basic joys of living—for instance, that some wealthy people don’t look forward to the holidays, because they were always expected to give really good presents.”
I’m not sure about this one. It would seem that the solution to this problem is obvious: give good presents.
If it were that simple, a lot of really rich people would be more happy. They love giving great gifts. The problem is that the gifts aren’t great anymore when they’re just expected. (I agree the super-rich should give awesome gifts anyway. They should just not expect to be as gratified by gift-giving as they used to be.)