I think there is a common misconception about what wealth really means in modern society, because we tend to believe that society today is richer than yesterday and that wealth, although it is usually said that poorly distributed, is steadily increasing, and I don't think that's the case, because as the well-known adage says "the richest man is not he who has the most, but he who needs the least."
I think they have sold us the idea, or we have deceived ourselves, believing that wealth has something to do with the accumulation of material goods, and that to be richer we must have more and not to be. Losing the keys to the inner path and forcing us to seek everything we need in the outside world. In this way we become hopelessly incomplete beings, depending on all kinds of material objects that seek to fill the void that originates from the lack of self-knowledge, and becoming deeply superficial beings who dedicate their lives to vanities.
This is not a criticism of the creation of material wealth, of course, nor of the accumulation of money, it is a criticism of the subordination of all life to such chimeras, and the subsequent forgetfulness of everything that truly has value in life, as is knowing how to appreciate beauty, knowing true freedom, valuing wisdom, and living according to the correct dictates of virtue.
Materialism, which is the basis of consumerism, can lead us to think that everything we need is outside of us and that what is inside really has no value, in this way we forget and lose everything we have and make ourselves really poor. As a result, we lead a hectic life chasing things that are outside of us and that will never completely satisfy us.
We will never be truly rich in this way, increasing our needs and multiplying our desires, we will only manage to lose what we already have by nature, and all the things we accumulate will be like prostheses that simply place us, in any case, on equal terms with that man who recognized wealth in himself, and who can by this way dispense with all the material goods that we need.
True wealth begins, I believe, when we stop needing the accessory, when we stop wanting the superfluous, and when we learn to be content with what we have.
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