Growing up, I noticed a major divide between my friends who went to private schools and my friends who went to my public school. The differences between the two groups have changed as we have all gotten older, but one thing sticks out to me more than others as we are now choosing college majors: my private school friends seem to be much more concerned with making money.
When I first picked up on this contrast, I found myself feeling slightly judgmental. Why do they value financial success so highly? Don't they want to help others? Upon thinking about the observation for a bit longer though, I decided that this disparity between my more affluent and less affluent friends makes complete sense. I suppose my emotional brain understood that my more well-off friends should not be at fault for having financial ambition- I know personally that they are terrific people- but sometimes the intellectual brain is meddlesome and needs to understand why different people have different values.
All about quality of life
It would be a little bit strange for someone to want to be less wealthy than their parents. I think this is more about quality of life than money. If you grow up going on nice vacations, partaking in expensive recreational activities, eating out at nice restaurants, and living in a house on the water, the idea of giving a lot of that up is likely unappealing.
This should hold true for just about any social class. As a middle class dude, I wouldn't want to make less money than my parents when I "grow up" and therefore live a lower quality of life. I own a nice Dell laptop, can afford to have a lovable Golden Retriever, did middle school ski bus, and went to a charming, little beach town in Oregon for a week every summer. I don't really want to stop having those experiences, even if they are a luxury. The same concept can be applied to those who are more fortunate and less fortunate than I am. Everyone wants to continue living the quality of life that they are used to living.
This should hold true for just about any social class. As a middle class dude, I wouldn't want to make less money than my parents when I "grow up" and therefore live a lower quality of life. I own a nice Dell laptop, can afford to have a lovable Golden Retriever, did middle school ski bus, and went to a charming, little beach town in Oregon for a week every summer. I don't really want to stop having those experiences, even if they are a luxury. The same concept can be applied to those who are more fortunate and less fortunate than I am. Everyone wants to continue living the quality of life that they are used to living.
Social Pressure
I imagine there is some social pressure to be successful for those who grew up around other well-off folks. Some of this pressure may be explicit, and some may be more subconscious, but I think it is a reality everyone faces.
I can relate to this too. Though I don't feel pressure to make a six figure salary, I do feel pressure to make a solid five figure salary. No one has told me that I should aim for a certain income, but it seems to be an expectation after growing up in a comfortably middle class family. Sometimes family members will put additional pressure on you to be successful, but often (and in my case) it can just be a general feeling of expectation or self-expectation. I imagine that the self-pressure and pressure of society and family would be greater for those from more upper-class families.
I can relate to this too. Though I don't feel pressure to make a six figure salary, I do feel pressure to make a solid five figure salary. No one has told me that I should aim for a certain income, but it seems to be an expectation after growing up in a comfortably middle class family. Sometimes family members will put additional pressure on you to be successful, but often (and in my case) it can just be a general feeling of expectation or self-expectation. I imagine that the self-pressure and pressure of society and family would be greater for those from more upper-class families.
Can money buy happiness?
There is some famous research looking at the correlation between happiness and income, and how in the United States that correlation stops somewhere around $75,000 per year depending on what city you live in (it is probably very different for New York City and Harlingen, Texas). Even then, as every statistics professor will tell you, that correlation does not mean that the higher income causes the higher levels of happiness. And of course, even if it was shown to be completely causal, that is the average across a broad population, so the impact of income on happiness levels would be different for each individual.
What I would be interested in though, is how one's sense of happiness/life satisfaction/self-worth would be correlated with (or caused by?) their movement on the social class ladder. That is to say, if you make more money or less money than your parents, would your happiness be different because of it? Clearly there are tons of different factors that play into what makes one feel happy or fulfilled (including plain ol' genetics), but I would guess that having a different quality of life than you did as a kid matters.
Fear of being less financially successful than your parents seems legitimate to me. Your quality of life would go down, you wouldn't be able to enjoy some of the activities or participate in the same social events that you did growing up, and you may be viewed as a disappointment by others or even yourself to an extent.
What I would be interested in though, is how one's sense of happiness/life satisfaction/self-worth would be correlated with (or caused by?) their movement on the social class ladder. That is to say, if you make more money or less money than your parents, would your happiness be different because of it? Clearly there are tons of different factors that play into what makes one feel happy or fulfilled (including plain ol' genetics), but I would guess that having a different quality of life than you did as a kid matters.
Fear of being less financially successful than your parents seems legitimate to me. Your quality of life would go down, you wouldn't be able to enjoy some of the activities or participate in the same social events that you did growing up, and you may be viewed as a disappointment by others or even yourself to an extent.
EMPATHIZE
That is not to say that unethical business practices or lack of desire to help others is okay just because it makes sense for children of the wealthy to want to stay in their social class. But with my private school friends at least, I don't see any unethical business practices or unwillingness to pitch in to the greater good. I just see a group of nice, intelligent kids who consciously or subconsciously are trying to find a way to continue with the life they grew up living.
The lesson I've learned through thinking this over is to have empathy. It is easy to hate on rich people and condemn them for being greedy. It is harder to put yourself in someone else's Coach high heels (clearly the footwear choice of the affluent) and think about why they would value a high income. I think wealthy folks are just like the rest of society though; we all just want to keep our quality of life or improve upon it.
The lesson I've learned through thinking this over is to have empathy. It is easy to hate on rich people and condemn them for being greedy. It is harder to put yourself in someone else's Coach high heels (clearly the footwear choice of the affluent) and think about why they would value a high income. I think wealthy folks are just like the rest of society though; we all just want to keep our quality of life or improve upon it.