past few years with breaking out of a
serious relationship this relationship
affected my mindset affected how I
viewed others and in all honesty
completely controlled my life I recently
broke up with the one-dollar bill and
not just the one dollar bill but with
money I recently broke out of my
relationship with money and it may seem
absurd to you to have money issues at
the age of 17 does not solely revolve
around the amount of money I have how I
mentally and physically affected by my
material wealth but let’s face it I am
NOT alone many of you in the audience
will have or have already had money
issues hi my name is Cedric lepine and
i’m here today to give you a free
couples therapy session as i hope to
improve your relationship with money I
look out in an audience of privileged
individuals individuals who are blessed
to be affluent individuals who are
blessed with a roof over their heads
individuals who are blessed to not have
to worry whether next meal is coming
from individuals living the life of the
top and being at the top in this day and
age brings you money and this money
brings you power what is this power
power to purchase property power to buy
nice clothes power to buy a nice car
power to have more material possessions
than another person so what I have a
nice car I have nice clothes I have a
nice house big deal what it is a big
deal a very big deal and here is why our
society is built upon an economic ladder
so to speak where our goal as citizens
is to move up to visit to a position
where we have more money and in turn
more power the system is flawed now I’m
not saying that I’m having more money is
bad that the side effects I’ve been
having more wealth are not clearly
stated on the pack
which individuals being to become
addicted
controlled and changed by their material
wealth and isn’t their faults well not
completely with the assistance of
Harvard University and the University of
Utah I was able to discover a new
disease that i like to call post
paycheck mine disorder or ppmd ppmd
stems from the human personality changes
the result from acquiring wealth this
affects the mental and physical actions
of those infected and in most cases
leads the host to become less charitable
have stronger feelings or make more on
ethical decisions have stronger feelings
of entitlement and grow their ego
although upfront and may seem that the
richest and the wealthiest in society
are also the most charitable it is found
that the opposite is true a recent study
done by UC Berkeley found the
individuals who consider themselves rich
donated one-point-three percent of their
income annually to charity well those
who are in the poorest sector of the
study donate over double that amount
with three-point-two percent of their
income donated annually this suggests
the individuals who are wealthier feel
more entitled to their wealth than those
who are less affluent why according to
dr. TN Dayton a psychologist who works
for NYU it can be suggested that
individuals who are wealthier are
interned less charitable because of
their addiction to money acquiring money
can make the soul or even main purpose
of one’s existence it makes them feel
good these positive feelings lead to an
all-consuming preoccupation with money
and strains relationships with others
the problem of this is that people with
this issue have feelings of entitlement
and they want to protect their wealth
because they don’t want to have to give
it away they want it for themselves
because they’re addicted to it and this
leads them to be less charitable they
want more rather than helping out those
who have less this idea of entitlement
was recently studied by UC Berkeley as
drivers in California were tested to see
how they would react to a basic traffic
law it is California law
drivers must stop and let pedestrian
cross the street at an intersection
individuals who drove luxury vehicles
were four times more likely to break
this law than those who drove less
luxurious vehicles or normal vehicles in
the lowest category or the poorest or
the worst vehicles individuals broke
this law zero times thousands of
vehicles were studied and zero times did
someone in this sector the poor sector
break the law in another study done by
the same group of researchers a box of
candy was laid out and those who were
tested were explicitly told that the
candy was for little children who are
participating in a study in another room
these are adults who are being tested by
the way those who are considered rich
took two times more candy than those who
are considered poor it shocks me that
they are even taking the candy but the
word to Zone in on here is entitlement
it is a sense of entitlement or
egotistical driven lifestyle that leads
to the other factors greed unethical
decision-making unmoral in a recent
study done by a group of universities
including Yale and Stanford those who
were considered rich in the study
believe that was because they were more
entitled to or deserve the money more
than those who are poor well the poor
individuals in the study believe that
any individual could be rich and anyone
could be poor so does having more power
through money really make you more
entitled in someone else I guess so
because facts are facts facts don’t lie
and I don’t want to stand up in front of
you today and lie to you and tell you
that the job you are doing as the people
at the top is good enough because to be
blunt it isn’t and this is not to say
that you’re all doing a bad job but the
majority of individuals at the top of
society are being overly affected by
their wealth I’m not here to beat us up
or dwell on the issue but a shed light
on a problem we have an increase
awareness so that we as a society can
change for the better this change all
starts with asking yourself intently
purposefully if you would be the same
individual you are today for all of your
wealth and material possessions were
taken away is your identity solely based
around your material wealth We are
privileged and witness privilege comes
power and as Uncle Ben said with great
power comes great responsibility we have
the opportunity to use this power for
good small actions of kindness and
service can help thwart the wave of
entitlement and greed that is destroying
our society we must focus on the wants
of society rather than our own
individual wants being in the limelight
should not be achieved at the expense of
others let’s shed our egotistical
tendencies and work together to move up
on the economic ladder let’s break away
from our relationship with money and
foster relationships with other
individuals because money is good for a
while but memories with other human
beings lasts forever money is power and
the world is counting on us to wield
this power for good we can be better together as one thank you