I have long suspected that the wealthy are suffering from an addiction not unlike hoarding. Today, there is an essay, written by one who should know, who not only confirms that wealth addiction is real, but describes what it is like. The essay is worth a read, not just once, but repeatedly, as it explains that which seemed impossible to understand.
In his article, For the Love of Money, Sam Polk describes the events that lead up to him becoming a wealthy hedge fund manager, and eventually what caused him to walk away from it all. He describes how he grew up with a parent who was always dreaming of having more, and who believed that having more money would solve all his problems. He took this lesson from his father, and got a lucrative job on Wall Street.
He tells about how alcohol and drugs were his initial addictions, and how they almost ruined him, and how they did ruin an important relationship. But the alcohol and drugs were merely masking a worse addiction for him. He simply could not get enough. Further, his associates on Wall Street had the same addiction (I will not say suffered ... suffering is when you have to watch your child starve to death because there is no food). As with other addicts, these addicts engaged in their addiction together, and fueled it to new levels.
He talks of how each bonus got bigger and bigger but still did not feel like it was enough. He talks about the envy when someone else had a better trading day. He talks about how important he felt when he could get seats to sporting events others could only dream about getting, or reservations at restaurants that require others to be on waiting lists. He talks about the power he felt came along with the money.
The following paragraph is particularly telling:
From that moment on, I started to see Wall Street with new eyes. I noticed the vitriol that traders directed at the government for limiting bonuses after the crash. I heard the fury in their voices at the mention of higher taxes. These traders despised anything or anyone that threatened their bonuses. Ever see what a drug addict is like when he’s used up his junk? He’ll do anything — walk 20 miles in the snow, rob a grandma — to get a fix. Wall Street was like that. In the months before bonuses were handed out, the trading floor started to feel like a neighborhood in “The Wire” when the heroin runs out.
This is why Wall Street fights paying their fair share. This is why they fight regulation. This is why they can let children go hungry while they store up more than they can use. It is why they buy politicians both locally and nationally. This is the best description of the Koch Brothers that I have ever seen.
His most important paragraphs come when he describes how wealth addiction puts all of us in danger. How it creates the inequality that is eating at our nation.
He also describes how hard it is to combat wealth addiction. How there are no recovery groups, how society does not recognize the illness. How hard it is to walk away.
I am not sure how we, as a nation, combat this illness and the damage it is doing to this country of ours. I am sure we need to stop feeding their addiction and start feeding our hungry and poor. I am sure we need to stop worshipping the addicts and letting them drag our country down with them, as an alcoholic drags down his family. I am sure we need to do this now, before it is too late.