Should Making Money Be The Measure Of Self-Worth?

Did you know that, in the United States, the average CEO income is way higher than that of average workers. In 2021, the average CEO of a S&P 500 company made $18.3 million, while the median worker made just $58,260. This means that the average CEO was paid 324 times more than the median worker. In fact, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio has been steadily increasing for decades. In 1965, the average CEO made only 20 times more than the median worker. Twenty-five years later the ratio had increased to 59-to-1. And in 2021, it reached an all-time high of 399-to-1.

I made the comparison to show that our world is dominated by money, especially driven by the capitalist system that has been embraced globally - too much of it for a lucky few, and too little for the vast majority of people. From the time we are young, we are taught the value and inequity of it, to the extent that making money has ceased to be primarily necessary for survival, but sought after as an end in itself. It is no surprise that we have league tables of the richest people (the UK Times Rich List) - those who are amassing vast wealth while their communities are often deprived, leading to an almost obscene imbalance in what can be earned by the various sections of society as shown by the CEO and worker comparisons.

From the figures quoted above, making money shouldn’t be the measure of self-worth, but there are factors why some people use it as the key yardstick of self-value.

The whole notion of self-worth is not a social barometer. No one outside of you can tell you how much you are worth. You are the only one who can do that through the level of your self-esteem and what matters to you. Money is thus only ONE way of measuring self-worth as your self-esteem is likely to be higher if you have more of it.

For example, monks and nuns who devote their lives to God and have forsaken money would value the number of people they can impact and save, rather than the money they might have. In fact, they would see money as useless to them except to maintain their survival. Their self-worth would come from their ability to serve their God in ways that make them feel good about their efforts.

As our great statesman, Winston Churchill, once said: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

I can certainly understand that. I write to share my knowledge, to link up with positive people who share my inspirational approach, and, above all, to make a difference to others. It means that, no matter how much money I might earn in the process, my self-worth will only be validated to me when I see the effect my writing has, the way it is received, and the number of people who might benefit from it.

However, if someone is from a culture where money and wealth are prized highly above everything else, they will grow up believing that their personal worth is based on how much money they make, and that will be their key goal in life. That would matter to them a great deal, especially if people like them are also reinforcing similar actions by valuing their money, too.

Nevertheless, in a culture where money is only one way of measuring success, no matter how much money one might have in the end, it won’t matter to those who couldn’t care less about it, which in turn, would do little to enhance their own self-worth.

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