Member-only story

Are You in Denial About Your Greed?

The answer isn’t always more

Andy Taylor
5 min readJul 19, 2022
Photo by Gustavo Fring: https://www.pexels.com/photo/mother-and-son-riding-a-twist-car-3985232/

Years ago me and my family were caught in the middle class trap. Firmly. Keeping up with the Joneses was — subconsciously — our main motivator.

They’re doing work to their house. We should. They’ve got their kids into that school. We should. They’re going on holiday there, why can’t we? How come they can afford a nice car like that? Why’s my career not going as well as hers/his?

And I’m sure millions of people around the world of our age (we were in our 30’s) and in similar suburban contexts were doing exactly the same.

The fuel being poured on this fire was (and still is) social media. The highlights reel instead of the raw footage.

You give others a snapshot of your life that says “Hey, I’m perfect, rich and happy!”

It’s a lie.

Even worse, it makes the person seeing it feel bad that they don’t have that life.

So they go all out for it. Or they fake it till they make it. And they post about it. And the cycle of doom continues.

The Doom-Cycle

While this social media doom-cycle is fresh in our minds, let’s think of a fictional example…

--

--

Andy Taylor
Andy Taylor

Written by Andy Taylor

I want to learn. I try to grow. I’d love to help.

Responses (1)