Picture this: a Mumbai executive, fresh from a seven-figure bonus, scrolls LinkedIn at 2 a.m. A cousin flaunts a yacht off Dubai; a former colleague speaks from a TED stage. What once felt like liberation now seems a starting pistol in a marathon with no finish line. India’s economy is booming, salaries are climbing and consumer markets are swelling, yet satisfaction remains scarce. Wealth accumulates, expectations rise faster, and money buys comfort but not calm.
Economists insist money is arithmetic. In reality, it is psychology. Humanity may have mastered the atom and the algorithm, yet remains inept at mastering desire. Modern capitalism is built on that weakness.
Affluence Without Ease
Money promises comfort and status, yet often delivers envy and unease. A 2024 Pew survey found that 62 per cent of urban Indians still fret over financial insecurity. Absolute wealth grows; relative deprivation bites harder.
Take the “in-the-car” paradox. People do not buy expensive cars for the joy of driving them. They buy them for the imagined admiration of others. Yet when the vehicle glides past, passers-by are not marvelling at the driver. They are picturing themselves in a better car. The fantasy of status collapses into a loop of self-absorption. Lakhs are spent not for utility, but for the illusion of being seen by an audience too busy watching themselves.
The same logic governs housing. A three-bedroom flat feels like a triumph until a neighbour upgrades to a villa. The larger the space, the more it becomes a stage for inadequacy. Each purchase resets the benchmark; space grows, satisfaction shrinks.
And nowhere is the paradox more vivid than in weddings. Families plunge into debt to fund multi-day spectacles, hoping to display prestige. Yet no number of fireworks or jewellery silences the comparisons with the next cousin’s celebration. The pursuit of grandeur leaves behind not joy but exhaustion, resentment and unpaid loans.
The Psychology of Scarcity And When Growth Breeds Discontent
Classical economics links income to welfare. Reality is messier. Scarcity is rarely about resources alone; it is shaped by comparison. A 2024 study in SSM - Population Health confirmed that that relative income, not absolute, drives satisfaction in rapidly urbanising economies like India.
Aspiration always outruns achievement. What was once a modest milestone, owning a refrigerator or sending a child to a local school, is now measured in international school fees and branded kitchens. This gap between the desired and the possessed is swiftly monetised. Credit cards and EMIs turn envy into transaction. India’s consumer credit market grew 15 per cent annually between 201‒8 and 2023, according to the Reserve Bank. Discontent is one of the economy’s most renewable resources.
A generation ago, middle-class families lived modestly. Today 78 per cent of urban households own smartphones, per Statista, yet many feel poorer compared to peers with newer models or bigger flats. Even the wealthy fret. India’s over 150 lakh millionaires, per Credit Suisse, stash gold and offshore funds to match global peers. When status is the yardstick, wealth feels fragile.
Envy's Algorithmic Auction
Social media has turbocharged this treadmill. Instagram is not just a platform; it is an advertising machine powered by envy. Every scroll compresses the distance between your life and someone else’s highlight reel. In the analogue age, comparison was with neighbours or colleagues. Today it is with influencers and strangers ‒ continents away.
The result is consumption as theatre. Weddings become spectacles, holidays become performances, homes become sets. Economists call these “positional goods” ‒ valued not for utility but for status. A watch that tells time costs Rs 1500; one that signals prestige, Rs 5 lakh. The difference lies entirely in perception.
Firms exploit this brilliantly. Limited editions, luxury tie-ups, influencer campaigns all create scarcity and urgency. Envy converts neatly into sales. The GDP ticks upward; the consumer remains stuck chasing the mirage of “enough.”
Reclaiming Enough
Repurpose riches for liberation, not escalation. The ultra-rich who lament want are often trapped in time sinks: private jets to board meetings, weekends lost to wardrobe wars. Redirect money to reclaim hours, using domestic help, sabbaticals, or skill-building, and satisfaction rises. A 2024 Gallup poll of Indian executives found those valuing time affluence were 30 per cent happier than income obsessives.
Governments can also nudge the needle. Growth metrics blind to malaise, while well-being indices, as in Bhutan, measure what matters. Stronger public schools blunt private-fee fever, curbs on urban sprawl tame rent rackets, and subsidised mental health checks ease unseen strain. Yet the heaviest lift falls to individuals: rediscovering enough as ally, not adversary. Ambition ignites progress, but unchecked, it incinerates joy. As Epicurus warned, natural wants are easily met; vain ones ‒ never.
India's saga is not sealed by stock tickers or billionaire tallies. It hinges on whether earners savour their ascent or sprint past it, eyes fixed on a receding summit. Resist, and wealth becomes a bridge to meaning, a quiet feast with kin, a cause that endures. Succumb, and it desolves to dust. The true cost of never arriving is not rupees squandered. It is a life half-lived, forever scrolling someone else's highlight reel.
The tragedy of money is not that it fails to buy happiness. It is that it keeps us believing happiness lies just one purchase away.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. |
