You aren’t an evil capitalist for wanting to create a life where safety includes having more than enough money.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting money beyond what is needed for your survival. Simply surviving is the first goal, but it doesn’t have to be the only goal. Most people want to do more than “just get by”, and that’s okay. 

I think a lot of folks are nervous to admit that they want to have more money than they need. Which makes sense, right? All around us, every single day, we see examples of people who have WAY more money than they need doing terrible things. As a result, we think it’s more respectable or reasonable to say, “I just want a simple life where my needs are met, I don’t need extravagance or luxury.” And it’s okay to want that too, but how often are we shrinking ourselves in order to not appear greedy or capitalistic?

I propose that there is a middle ground to this, and it’s not just based on an amount of money. There is a place you are allowed to exist that is in between “just getting by” and “hoarding valuable resources.” You can establish a baseline of safety for yourself and then decide that you want a little more than safety. It’s okay to want exciting! It’s okay to want thrilling. It’s also okay to want simple. It’s okay to want routine. It’s okay to want luxury.

What’s not okay is it exploiting labor and our planet’s resources to generate more money than a single person could spend in a lifetime and then doing nothing to distribute those life-affirming resources. The good news is, 99% of humans aren’t doing that.

I want you to take a deep breath right now and tell yourself that it’s okay to want whatever amount of income you’ve been daydreaming about, and it’s okay to pursue it. The trepidation is very real, because we have all been harmed by capitalism and resource hoarding, but if I can be cliché for a moment here, we need to start becoming the changes we wish to see. If you hate the trickle-up economics we are seeing on a large scale, then you are welcome to dedicate yourself to becoming a conduit of resource rather than a black hole. If you’re sick of the way money is distributed globally, then you are welcome to distribute money in the ways that are possible locally. 

You don’t have to be mega-rich to do this. We’ve already seen how little the mega-rich are willing to do for the collective, how they cling to their resources out of fear that they might have to experience “just getting by” or the 24/7 attack on your nervous system that is struggling under capitalism. 

Through my experiences with humans I have arrived at the belief that the majority of people want to do good. Most people, when they talk about the reasons why they desire more money, include being able to redistribute funds to their communities. Most people envision wealth as a state where they are consistently “giving back,” in whichever ways are important to them. 

So, let’s add it all up. The majority of people believe that everyone deserves to have their needs met, plus a little extra. The majority of people believe in distribution of wealth. And the majority of people are afraid to pursue wealth in case they are perceived as greedy. You see where this is going?

You are free to define what safety and wealth mean to you, personally and financially, and then pursue them. Unless your goals include becoming a resource-hoarding billionaire, you aren’t hurting anyone by achieving financial safety.