Erosion of wealth!

Have you noticed, of late, we are all so comfortable shelling out a few extra bucks either on groceries, taxi rides, or home deliveries from different parts of the country without even blinking our eyes? Have you also noticed that in the new world, we have advanced digitally in paying our bills through mobile apps, smart-watches, or by cards at times, and we hardly pay attention to the amount, or for that matter, the digits after the decimal point? Have you also noticed how we allow bad social behaviours to become the new normal? And have you noticed we have more materialistic possessions than any of our forefathers? Is the ride much smoother, or is it that we are walking like zombies in our own lives?

All around, I see we are racing to make our lives and those around us better, hassle-free, and happy at the cost of our conscience. The list of things we take for granted is legendary and doesn't seem to be getting any shorter anytime soon. I feel our attitudes on many things and areas are misplaced. The areas where we need to pay attention, like growing taxes, corruption, unnecessary charges on essential goods, those extra bucks we have to bear to make ends meet, the amount of time wasted to find better and cost-efficient services, and the list goes on, are not so widely spoken about outside of the media. Maybe it's because we are too comfortable in our bubble. Another reason could be that we are more focused on worldly events, such as which country invaded which, who is doing what on their vacation, who is beating more drums in public, who bought the new shiny car, and the like. I feel it bothers us less now to check on who in the neighbourhood needs help or attention. To check who is struggling to make ends meet. To pay attention to anyone struggling with mental health, or if anyone needs an ear to listen?

Reflecting on all these thoughts, I feel we are eroding our wealth faster than any of our previous generations in history. Wealth of peace of mind, health, intellect, creativity, relationships, empathy, money, and wisdom. Whatever our definition of wealth is, are we monitoring it to understand if it's growing or diminishing? Amongst all, I feel deeply about the erosion of our moral values. I seldom see people using their moral compass to make decisions before profits and personal gains. And if we are, then why is the world in such a mess?

In the past, I used to hear stories of the bygone era from my grandparents. They shared that people had very little in terms of money, food, goods, and services, and yet they were happy. They had a very high degree of moral values; they cared for people around them, their surroundings, and the environment. They would spend time interacting with others, helping those in need. They used their moral compass to keep their behaviours in check. To reflect on their mistakes and lessons learnt. It could be that, since things didn't change at breathless speed, they didn't have to play catch-up. Imagine if all our past generations had thought and behaved like we do today. Would we be able to sit in our comfortable sofas and read this?

I wonder what kind of wealth we will be leaving behind for future generations? Our ever-changing, hard-to-predict behaviours, or our poor anger management skills, or our race to prove others wrong, will any of this be of use? Our bank balance, or a few investments that are hard to inherit due to various taxes and winding paperwork. Our shiny cars, which might not be any good after a few years. Given the current condition of the road and traffic, it might be wise to park in the garage. Our houses, which are good to pass on, but will the future generation want to live in an old building or in posh flats in a new area with modern facilities? Our gold ornaments, handed down through generations, may be, but will they use them or park them in the bank lockers? Our other worldly possessions of furniture, paintings, old watches, and all other junk, if ever will be used?Lastly, our mobile? The most prized possession of today. I am clueless whether anyone in the future would use an outdated phone. Many in the current generation themselves change phones every year. How, on earth, can I forget to list our digital assets? All our curated selfies, pictures of cats and dogs, videos of flying birds taken from that cliff, which could have cost our lives? Unfortunately, these are our lifelines nowadays.

Now imagine the amount of time we invest in browsing, designing, selecting, and shopping for all these possessions, and the amount of emotions we attach to them. We might have invested half of our lives to earn money to buy them, and another half to guard them. I will hasten to add the time we spend maintaining them and our statuses. Thinking that the next seven generations will bless me for passing them down such treasured possessions is another misplaced expectation.

Our future generations will surely be smarter than we are. They will thank us if we don't pass any of this junk, as it might be a burden. If we manage to limit the erosion of all the wonderful things, such as good values, human connections, knowledge, wisdom, and culture passed on to us, we will be truly blessed. We can offer them an open sky to learn and make mistakes, to fly high, to fall and get up to try again. I think they will be better equipped to limit further erosion of wealth and pass it to their future generations.