When wealth is not health

By Alex P. Vidal 

“I wish…I wish I were dead…And what use would that be to anyone?” ―J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

THE daily distress and melancholy being experienced by flood-control project contractors involved in anomalous transactions worth billions of pesos with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) must now be in the alarming level now that the ongoing investigation being conducted to determine their culpability and guilt is getting intense.

Ditto with the DPWH contractor family that owns a fleet of luxury vehicles worth P465 million now that the Bureau of Customs has started lowering the boom on the extravagant collection for possible tax liabilities on imported cars.

While the rigmarole continues, there will always be a state of uncertainty and suspended animation for the beleaguered contractors and their DPWH collaborators.

Questions like “Are we going to lose these vehicles?”, “Are we going to jail?”, “Will we go bankrupt after all these investigations?”, “Are we going to say goodbye to our (unexplained) wealth?”, “Will our children be dragged in this scandal?”, “Will our family do down together?” will hound them day by the day.

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There will be sleepless nights, missed meals, missed and canceled appointments, neglected hygiene, isolations, mental lapses, malayo-ang-tingin-wala-namang-tinatanaw episodes, crying on each other’s shoulders, headaches, panic modes, breakdowns, etcetera.

The stress and anxiety will certainly take their toll and can have disastrous effects in their health.

Stress is the physical or mental response to an external cause, such as having a lot of homework or having an illness.

A stressor may be a one-time or short-term occurrence, or it can happen repeatedly over a long time.

Anxiety, on the other hand, is the body’s reaction to stress and can occur even if there is no current threat.

If that anxiety doesn’t go away and begins to interfere with our life, it could affect our health, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

We could experience problems with sleeping, or with our immune, digestive, cardiovascular, and reproductive systems.

We may also be at higher risk for developing a mental illness such as an anxiety disorder or depression.

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According to the Newport Institute, worry and anxiety are often thought of as two words for the same thing. A recent survey reportedly found that one-third of parents of teens and young adults think the two terms are interchangeable.

That is true to some extent—both refer to fearful uncertainty about something in the future. But worrying typically happens in relation to a specific situation: ”What if we lose all the 40 luxury cars?” “What if our construction business will go bankrupt and we go to jail like Janet Napoles if our guilt in the (substandard and/or “ghost”) projects will be established?”

A worry typically ends once the problem is solved, while anxiety exists as pervasive, persistent symptoms even without a specific cause,” explains the Newport Institute.

“However, when worrying turns into a loop of repetitive negative thinking, it can trigger anxiety, including the physical effects of worrying on the body, such as a sense of dread, a racing heartbeat, and headaches or stomachaches.”

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Shreyans Goenka and Manoj Thomas asked, ”Is it wrong to live a flashy, ostentatious lifestyle? Should a person be judged for carrying a Louis Vuitton bag and driving a Rolls Royce?”

Many people would say yes, it is wrong to flaunt your wealth in the face of others.

They would say that people should live a simple and humble life and that those who flaunt their designer toys are “bad people.” They might hold Bill Gates as a good example of someone who lives an understated life, despite his vast wealth.

Yet, many other people would say no—it is perfectly acceptable to flaunt your wealth. If people have wealth and status, then they are entitled to celebrate and display them.

People who flaunt their designer toys are not “bad people.” For them, Donald Trump might be a good example of someone who has no qualms about displaying his wealth.

So, why do people differ so widely in their views of ostentatious lifestyles? Why do many people think it is morally wrong to be flashy, while others encourage it? In our research, we found that these differences of opinion can be explained by differences in peoples’ core moral beliefs.

Some people believe that equality and fairness are the most important moral virtues. For them, it is important to make society as equal as possible and to break down class structures. These people see ostentatious behaviors as a manifestation of power, social inequality, and waste.

Thus, for them, luxury displays are contrary to their moral values, and they denounce them as wrong.

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Other people have different core moral beliefs. These people see hierarchical class structures as a moral virtue. For them, society should not be equal but rather needs to be ordered based on social rank.

These people see ostentatious behaviors as a reinforcer of social rank. So, when people flaunt their wealth, they are signaling their status, which is necessary to preserve social order.

Thus, for these people, luxury displays are acceptable because such displays are congruent with their moral values.

These findings help to explain why some cultures and social groups embrace luxury displays while others shun them.

For example, Western cultures and rich liberals tend to value equality in society, but Asian cultures and rich conservatives tend to value social order.

Indeed, our results show that sales of luxury products tend to be lower in Western countries such as Sweden and Denmark but higher in Asian countries, such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Even within the United States, we found that liberals believe that it is morally wrong for leaders to be ostentatious, whereas conservatives are comfortable with their leaders being flashy.

So, our research shows that people differ in the degree to which they think ostentatious displays of wealth and luxury are morally wrong, and the acceptability of luxury displays reflects differences in people’s core moral beliefs that vary across societies and cultures. So, whether you think it is wrong to show off your wealth depends on your personal moral beliefs.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)