Here’s something that might not have occurred to you: It’s not easy being rich.
Well, yes, there are all those things that money can buy to alleviate the burden of fabulous wealth — things like servants, summers in Provence, private jets, and such.
But as an article in the “Wealth” section of The New York Times reminds us, money buys things, not happiness — and America’s poor upper-one-percenters aren’t happy.
The chief source of superrich sadness? Overwork.
It seems that vaunted CEOs and Wall Street titans feel as though they’re always on the clock, expected to be in charge of every little facet of their business.
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Before you fall into uncontrollable weeping over their suffering, let me give you the good news: Whole flocks of psychologists, neuroscientists, and other healers are rushing to conquer this tragic malaise of the rich.
They’ve even coined a term for it: the “stress of high status.”
The main symptom, we’re told, is “the feeling of always being rushed for time.”
Excuse me, but if all these soothers of the elite think high status is demanding, they should get out more. Try being a single mom with a couple of kids who’s juggling two part-time fast-food jobs, worrying about making the rent this month, and then having her car break down.
Yet the Times devotes a full page to the pseudo-misery of these pampered ones, even citing a prominent psychologist who laments that wealthy people “spend less time doing pleasurable things and more time doing compulsory things and feeling overwhelmed.”
More time doing “compulsory things” than that single mom? Get a grip!
The sickness that has infected the wealthy class isn’t stress. It’s narcissism.
