People feel happier when they feel secure. We have nicer gadgets now but life is also more stressful because finding a stable long-term career is more difficult.
Indeed, thinking about my own life, I hoard wealth because of the risk of an event such as a medical emergency, unemployment, or my kids not being able to launch their own careers.
I find this interesting and it reminds me of a friend of mine who is Finnish. After college, she moved back to Finland, knowing she wouldn't make as much money there as she would in the USA.
But she also mentioned she wouldn't need to. There, she didn't have to worry about saving money for her kid's college and a medical emergency was affordable without touching into life savings. Buying a house was the big she could think of saving money towards.
Exactly right! Prosperity doesn't mean anything without security. It does't mean anything if you know that you can lose it all the moment you exhale, or you could lose it all by getting sick. DH Lawrence wrote about this the last time inequality was this high (1928).
