The penalty of affluence is that it cuts one off from the common lot, common experience, and common fellowship.
-- Arnold Toynbee
This is really worth thinking about, especially since it is the 'common' that we have become so driven to get away from. Why? What do we believe this distance achieved will afford us? Something better...than everyone else gets?
More often than not, affluence seems to foster distance between people. Having it often makes me feel better than you, not having it often makes me feel that you are better than me. 'Better than', either way, is a problem...it is an illusion.
