Statistically, you're probably a money worshipper

Oh. My. Goodness. I know. I've been a really bad blogger. However, I have tons of awesome excuses (it was hubby's finals week so he needed the laptop, I'm doing more paid writing, I've got a 7-day workweek this week, yadda, yadda, yadda). 


Whadya say we put all that behind us and blog where we left off. Here goes.

Last time I checked, the majority of Americans said they were some kind of Christian. An even greater majority says that they believe in some sort of god. However, I guess there's a new religion out there...one that maybe we didn't even know we had...

This morning, I read a pretty cool article in the New York Times about our attitudes toward money here in the US of A. It's based on a recent academic study trying to find a way to categorize people's various pathological relationships with money. Think you're doing okay? Turns out, if money creates any kind of anxiety in your life, you probably fall into one of their pathological categories. I think that might just include all of us...

If you want to read the whole article, I linked it above. I'm going to focus on the one part of the study that I think relates most to this blog. As you know if you've read pretty much any of my posts, I have a lot of friends who are somehow discontent in their current jobs. They're people who maybe still don't know what they want to be when they grow up, "fell into" a job that's not as satisfying as they'd hoped, or know what they want but can't seem to get there. I fall into some mix of those categories as well. Although this group of younger workers is discontent for a variety of different reasons...there seems to be one thing we're all discontentabout. I'll give you one guess. 

Yeah, it's money. I have friends living at home because they're not comfortable moving out on what they make. I have friends collecting partial unemployment because of their low-paying jobs. I know people dabbling in food stamps every so often, or just living on a really small grocery list. It's often not the actual pay that's necessarily horrible (although sometimes it is), but the student loan payments, high car insurance (that 18-24 age bracket...), and sometimes even that data plan that's responsible for daily tweets in the double digits...

Regardless of the reason, I have heard each of these people (including myself) say something like "If I had more money I'd be less stressed and happier." Turns out, belief in that very phrase is a sign of a pathology psychologists are starting to call money worship. And it afflicts the majority of Americans, according to the study linked above. Psychologists are even starting to see other signs of unhealthy behavior within this money worship attitude. We're doing all kinds of unhealthy psychological things, like displacement ("If it weren't for the greed on Wall Street I'd be wealthier and happier.") and denial ("I don't have a money problem, I'm simply feeling the stress of a recession."). Money worship affects more young people than old, more white than non-white, and the same number of males and females. 

Well geez, is it really so bad to want a higher paying job? Most of the people I know just feel like they do more work than they're compensated for. Psychologists agree that it's not so much wanting more money that's the issue--it's believing that you will be happier because you make more money. Actually, there's a relatively high occurance of depression among the wealthy (and lottery winners).  Just some food for thought. 

Anyway, I hope you have a great Friday! As always, comment below if you so desire, and share this link with your friends!

Oh, and if you want some more, I also wrote this: You're Dead? Great! Let Me Steal Your Tax Refund