The third purpose of wealth is comfort, the minimizing of pain and misery, so you can focus on pleasure and well-being. Parts one and two covered freedom and security. This one turns to the positive material benefits of wealth. Many people brush comfort off as unimportant, but the video argues it is a justifiable reason to pursue wealth.
It covers five kinds of comfort and ends with a bonus on why a predictable future leads to happiness.
Watch the full video here, or skip to the breakdown below.
The 5 kinds of comfort at a glance
- Comfort through food (0:43)
- Comfort through shelter (1:54)
- Child development in a comfortable environment (3:34)
- Comfort through privacy (5:10)
- Fun as emotional comfort (6:40)
- Bonus: a predictable future leads to happiness (8:48)
1. Comfort through food
What we put into our bodies and environment changes how we experience life. For the average person, healthy food has become a luxury and an inconvenience. Takeaway is easier than making a salad and often cheaper, so people eat unhealthily for convenience and for money.
Wealth makes quality intake easier. Eat right and you feel great: your body does not hurt, your muscles are strong and your brain works better. For our earliest ancestors food was literally wealth, and those with access to it did not have to fight to survive.
2. Comfort through shelter
Shelter is the combined outcome of freedom and security: your own corner of the universe, designed to fit who you are. You spend on average two thirds of your life at home, and one third of your life in bed.
That makes the home the clearest place to apply wealth for comfort. The average person today, it says, cannot afford true comfort, because society has prioritized economic development over quality of life. Many people live in what resembles self-picked cages. That is the reason to work hard and build wealth, so nobody you care about goes back to such conditions.
3. Child development in a comfortable environment
A good thing about growing up poor is that you do not know you are poor. By the time you figure it out, it is usually too late. The scars have altered who you are and become your core decision making factors.
In a small share of people a fire starts burning that lets them escape poverty, and the hunger never stops. The rest settle for what is ironically comfortable to them: mediocrity, which the video defines as putting up with things you should not have to just because that is how things are. Discomfort, abuse and discrimination are part of that lifestyle. Wealth can shield the next generation from these scars and give those with potential a fighting chance to follow what they feel instead of doing what they must to survive. Few comforts are more valuable than knowing your child is safe.
4. Comfort through privacy
Privacy means the world leaves you alone to be yourself. As technology advances, it is becoming one of the essential parts of a comfortable and free life. The video calls it a fundamental right and points to Article 12 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which protects against arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home or correspondence. It says 150 countries agreed to abide by it.
It then asks about social media using your data to make money and facial recognition software on CCTV cameras around the world. Nobody can live a comfortable life knowing everything is monitored and used against them. Wealth gives you the power to go incognito and adds a word to your vocabulary: private.
5. Fun as emotional comfort
Fun is an integral part of feeling alive. Many desires can be met with capital, from adventures to travel to toys, and fun is shareable, since you can pass the dopamine source to others. The video says this is where it thinks most of Wall Street gets wealth building wrong: money should be a facilitator of living, not the other way around. Some people live to work, others work to live.
Make your money and hit your goals, but use it so that life is a financial high score and nothing else. The most valuable things from your past are fun memories. Nobody remembers their sixth paycheck, but everyone remembers hanging out late with friends. Wealth can feed your body, protect it and your mind, and look after the future if you know how to use it.
Bonus: a predictable future leads to happiness
We feel stress because we struggle to choose between what we want and what we have to do. Apply force at two points of an iron bar and tension builds between them. We are also unsure about the future, even though today, yesterday and the day before were all fine.
There is great value in a predictable future aligned with our expectations. On a deep level the video calls happiness the highest form of comfort, because we are happy when reality matches our expectations of what it should be. Asking these questions helps decide where to focus your efforts.
What comes next
The series continues with part four, on progress in all its forms.
FAQ
How does wealth create comfort?
It improves food, shelter, a child’s early environment, privacy and fun. The video defines comfort as the minimizing of pain and misery.
Why is healthy food a luxury for many people?
Takeaway is easier and often cheaper than preparing healthy meals, so convenience and money push people toward unhealthy choices.
How does wealth affect child development?
The video says it can shield children from the scars of growing up poor and give those with potential a chance to follow what they feel rather than do what survival requires.
What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 12 about?
The video quotes it as protecting people from arbitrary interference with their privacy, family, home or correspondence, and says 150 countries agreed to abide by it.
Why does a predictable future make us happy?
The video says we are happy when reality matches our expectations, and we feel stress from being unsure about the future.
Keep reading
- Purpose of Wealth (3): Comfort
- Wealth and Happiness: How to Achieve Both
- Purpose of Wealth (1): Freedom
