Growing up, except one was born into an unbelievably liquid family, one would have at some point or the other been advised against trying to “keep up with the Joneses”. Whereas the parochial connectivity of those days prevented many persons from knowing sufficient Joneses to benchmark against, today, social media networks have exponentially multiplied the Jonesian gene pool, such that you can be enjoying a 2G connection under hot sun in Nguru, while some random stranger suffering under a transparent lake in the Maldives would make you think your life is a joke.
“Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.”
1 Timothy 6:6-10 (NLT)
If Uncle Paul knew the thrill of owning a diamond encrusted iPhone 15 Pro Max, would he have dared advise contentment with the basics of life? Let’s ponder on that later.
In recent years, we have seen a rise in incidences of high blood pressure in Nigeria. What used to be an add-on for older people is now included in the package for a rising number of young people who are already resigned to a lifetime of pressure management drugs. While some may point to poor eating and terrible working habits as a driver of hypertension, many persons associate the condition with “worrying” and point to financial fears as a major issue facing today’s world. Seeing the rising cases of gambling addiction, we may accept that at some level, a push for better spending power is powering undue worrying.
Leaving the Nigerian terrain, in a recent conversation with a friend based in the United States, he recounted having a friend with an excellent outward life but who was struggling financially. This friend had purchased a big house in a zone with a good school to enable his kids have “a great education” and added a nice SUV to match the external décor. However, mortgage payments, property taxes, car and credit card payments have conspired against his mental wellbeing. In effect, his desire for a better life has become the weapon fashioned against him.
Now, before we get all sanctimonious and sanction this man, can we point to what he has done that deviates from the current trend? An average person in most developed countries gets the message that he or she should enjoy life to the fullest by bingeing on cheap credit. Over here in countries like Nigeria with poor access to credit, persons in “good jobs” are readily offered loans by banks and commonly find themselves comparing their lifestyles against their colleagues. If hearsay is true, bankers themselves are the worst hit as they largely live above their incomes, padded with loans that chew into their health at the slightest whisper of a retrenchment.
Every day we go online; we are bombarded with standards that tell us that we need to upgrade our lives. In a country where less than 10% of the population earn more than ₦100,000 monthly, we find persons vehemently arguing that ₦400,000 should be the least acceptable monthly salary earned by any potential partner. This creates pressure on many persons who do not earn such and would feel their lives are being wasted. At the other end of the spectrum, those with the slightest whiff of the means are bombarded with the requirement to travel abroad regularly so much that a country without summer has schools on “summer break” and citizens who “travel for summer”. Unfortunately, our attempts to compete might be intrinsically unfair, especially if we compete against people heavily in debt or criminally or immorally enriched.
So, what happens if we decide to buck the trend? Well, depending on our social circles, we may suffer some level of ostracization. But if we can ignore peer pressure, we would find that non-conformance gives us the freedom to do things on our own terms. So, if you decide to buy a luxury SUV, it would be because you have considered all financial implications and have chosen to buy it because you want it, not because you want to “pepper them” or “belong”. And if we can unlock the contentment level, we are unlikely to be praying for divine help to pay rent in Asokoro when our income can comfortably cover a nice apartment in Kubwa. Now, some persons would argue that they need to “fake it to make it”—they need to project a certain quality of life to be able to walk through certain business doors and opportunities. For these ones, it would be wise to be careful that one is not overextended because the debt trap is real and slithering. Like Uncle Paul would say, we will leave this world with nothing; there’s no need killing ourselves just to live.
PS. Nothing in this article should be construed to mean that poverty is a virtue or that people should not seek to improve their circumstances where possible. But better a contented poor person who sleeps undisturbed than a hustling wealthy person who needs pills to sleep. You get the idea!
Image Credit: airnwings.com
Jilomes 