Materialism

Firefighters from three departments responded to a report of a house on fire in the Cherry Grove area of Vancouver, Washington. When an engine from Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue (CCFR) arrived, fire personnel announced there would be “access issues” to the single-story residence because of clutter.

Fire and smoke were visible from the windows in the kitchen and living room area of the home, but the yard around the house was cluttered with appliances, vehicles, and storage bins. That made it difficult for firefighters to quickly stretch hose lines to the structure.

A news release stated: “Once firefighters were able to clear out some of the clutter and make access to the house, the fire had grown too large to safely make an offensive interior attack. In addition, the interior spaces of the house were also very cluttered with high piles of clothing, storage bins, appliances, furniture, and other items.”

Fire Chief John Nohr said, “Normally in these types of fires, we bring in a track hoe to tear apart the piles. Due to the clutter in the yard, we weren’t able to get heavy equipment in there to help with extinguishment.”

Extreme clutter is dangerous for firefighters, especially when mixed with a smoky environment, because responders can get lost in the clutter. The piles of items can also tip over, crush, or entrap firefighters.

Nohr said, “In 37 years in the fire service, this is one of the most extremely cluttered homes I’ve ever seen. I feel for the family that has lost all of their possessions, but I also feel for the firefighters who put themselves at significant risk trying to fight a fire in a house this full.”

Possible Preaching Angle:
Like houses, a clean life is more than just convenient. It could also be the difference between a close call and destruction. Honest confession of sin provides the opportunity to clean out your stuff now. You don't want to try to desperately clean up in an emergency. New Years is an excellent time to reevaluate your life.

Researchers find one in four people grapple with compulsive overspending during the holiday season. An overwhelming 56% of respondents feel pressured to spend money during the holidays, with family emerging as the primary source of financial strain.

More than 75% of respondents experience what researchers call “money wounds” — emotional difficulties stemming from financial challenges that cut to the core of personal well-being.

The study reveals that low self-esteem, compulsive overspending, and shame from past financial mistakes emerge as the most common “money wounds.” The financial stress takes a significant emotional toll. 68% of those experiencing money wounds report that these challenges hold them back from feeling fulfilled and successful.

Many of those with money wounds admit to avoiding their financial troubles during the holidays. This avoidance manifests in various ways: refrain from buying gifts (37%), declining party invitations (33%), and avoid checking their bank account balances (29%).

Perhaps most heartbreaking is the social isolation that follows. 42% of respondents say they’ll become distant from others to avoid experiencing spending pressure. This distancing comes at an emotional cost, with participants reporting feelings of shame, guilt, and loneliness.

There is a glimmer of hope. 61% of respondents are actively trying to embrace the philosophy that “money and spending don’t equal happiness.” However, the road to recovery is long. On average, respondents believe it takes six years for a money wound to heal. More sobering still, many don’t believe financial trauma ever completely resolves.

As the holiday season approaches, the serves as a powerful reminder of the emotional complexity behind financial stress, urging compassion, understanding, and support for those struggling with money-related challenges.

“You won’t believe what I got from Shein for only $100!” The video opens with an influencer flashing perfectly manicured nails and a box bursting with clothes, accessories, and things no one actually needs.

Within minutes, thousands of comments flood in: “I need this!” “Adding to cart.” It’s consumerism served piping hot to millions of impressionable viewers who didn’t know they needed a $9 glitter bucket hat until five seconds ago.

Consumerism is the temptation we just can’t shake. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have turned buying stuff into a sport. This “haul culture” isn’t just harmless fun. It feeds the idea that more is always better and that your worth is tied to what you own. Haul videos like this are the poster children for a culture of overconsumption.

But while the world’s social media feeds scream “More, more, more!” the Gospel quietly calls for something radically countercultural: stewardship.

Possible Preaching Angle: Stewardship isn’t just about protecting the planet. It’s about managing every resource—time, money, relationships, possessions—in ways that honor God (Gen. 2:15). When our shopping carts (digital or otherwise) are overflowing with things we don’t need and can’t afford, we’ve veered off course. And when our closets look like a Forever 21 warehouse but our tithing is nonexistent? It’s time for a heart check. The issue isn’t, “Can I afford this?” It’s about remembering that everything we have—our paycheck, our possessions, our very breath—is on loan from God. When we buy mindlessly or hoard resources, we’re not just being careless. We’re saying we trust in “stuff” to bring satisfaction instead of trusting in the One who provides all we need.

Is it morally wrong to be “filthy rich”? Researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of Massachusetts Amherst examined how people across 20 countries judge excessive wealth. People in wealthier, more equal societies are actually more likely to view having too much money as morally wrong compared to those living in poorer, more unequal countries.

The research involved over 4,300 participants from nations as diverse as Belgium, Nigeria, Switzerland, and Peru. While you might expect people in struggling economies to resent the ultra-rich more, the opposite appears to be true.

The study found that people do not find excessive wealth very immoral across all countries. But more equal and wealthy societies like Belgium and Switzerland consider having too much money more wrong than less equal societies.

This suggests that when basic needs are met and inequality is lower, people become more sensitive to the potential harm caused by concentrated extreme wealth. Meanwhile, in developing nations where billionaires might represent hope for economic advancement, excessive wealth is viewed more favorably.

The researchers reference a 2023 statement by Elon Musk, currently the world’s richest person, who said it’s morally wrong to use the word “billionaire” as an insult if the individual uses their wealth to create products making millions of people happy. This perspective aligns with Western thinking that prioritizes happiness maximization as a moral good.

The luxury of moral criticism of excess may be more affordable for wealthier communities. Meanwhile, in developing nations, billionaires might represent aspiration rather than moral failure.

Possible Preaching Angle: Money; Money, love of; Wealth – The Bible does not condemn wealth, as such, since Abraham, Job, and Solomon, among others, were very wealthy individuals. The Bible does warn about the love of money (1 Tim. 6:10), the oppression of the poor, and making money ones security (Matt. 6:19)

Hope springs eternal for sports bettors, as they typically expect to break even on future wagers even when they have consistently lost money in the past.

Now we know roughly how overconfident many gamblers are. A study by Stanford University researchers finds that the average online sportsbook customer expects a gain of 0.3 cent for every dollar wagered. In reality, sports bettors lose an average of 7.5 cents per dollar wagered, reflecting “widespread overoptimism about financial returns,” according to Matthew Brown lead author of the study.

The study also found that 20% of participants reported betting too much. To promote responsible gambling, online sportsbooks have rolled out features making it easy for users to track their results over time. But since most sports bettors are overly optimistic about their future betting, those measures likely won’t do much to curb problematic gambling,

Brown says. “Even when bettors know their past losses, they remained optimistic about the future, so that particular approach to consumer protection might not be enough,” he says.

Possible Preaching Angle:

As online gambling infiltrates society (and the church), there are more opportunities for temptation, people can hide their gambling addiction by not leaving their home. How many secret addicted gamblers are there in our churches?

Despite decades of medical and cosmetic innovations, we haven't quite yet reached Never-Never Land, where no one ever grows older. But we're not that far away from a related place, Never-Lost Land, where no one and nothing gets lost.

According to an article in The New Yorker by Tim Lu, we've entered an age of Never-Lost Land, where no one and nothing gets lost. Thanks to G.P.S, Bluetooth, and the Internet, it is becoming harder both to become lost and to lose things.

This generation could be the last to have a real sense of what it means to get lost or to lose treasured objects. "Get lost" will become an archaic expression. Most of us will react to that possibility with relief. Yet it seems worth wondering whether something will be lost in Never-Lost Land, in a world without such a common and universally defining experience.

Sure, it's a relief, Lu argues, but have we lost something in the process of never losing anything. Lu continues: "While no one wants to lose their dog, or treasured object, maybe there's something to be gained by losing things, in the right dosage, at least … It helps toughen us, and it helps us understand the way the world actually is, which is to say, really quite indifferent to our well-being." He also thinks that by losing things it helps us stay less attached to the material world.

But will we ever reach Never-Lost Land? Wu doesn't think so. Instead, he thinks we will live in Nearly-Never-Lost Land, "where loss will be less common, but, when it does happen, even more traumatizing." He ends by saying, "It is something of the paradox of technological progress that, in our efforts to become invulnerable, we usually gain new, unexpected vulnerabilities, leaving us in vaguely the same condition after all."

Fine dining typically means splurging a little for high-quality meat or fresh seafood. But what if money were truly no object?

Restaurant owners and chefs around the world create original dining experiences for those who want unique experiences. You know, like spending nearly $10,000 on a pizza or $1,000 on an ice cream sundae.

Here are a few of the world’s most expensive meals:

• Masa — New York. Dinner Omakase menu per person: $750 sushi-eating experience.

• SubliMotion —Dubai. Dinner per person: around $2,000. That’s more than the average family will spend for an entire month on food.

• De Daltons – The Netherlands. The Golden Boy Burger: $5,532.79. Chef Robbert Jan de Veen’s “The Golden Boy” is made with 100% Wagyu A5 meat, as well as Beluga caviar, king crab, Spanish Paleta Ibérico, white truffle, and English cheddar.

• Renato Viola — Salerno, Italy. Louis XIII Pizza: $9,184.32. Pizza toppings include: mozzarella di bufala, lobster, and caviar all flown in from all different parts of the world.

• The Fortress Resort and Spa — Sri Lanka. The Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence Dessert: $14,500. The dessert features Italian cassata flavored with Irish cream with a pomegranate and mango compote. The base is adorned with an 80-carat aquamarine stone.

Possible Preaching Angles:

(1) Salvation and The Lord's Supper—They're both offered free of charge (although Jesus paid the price that we could never have paid), and the Lord's Supper is better than anything on this list. (2) Social Justice—While millions of people are malnourished, a few people can afford outrageously expensive, luxurious meals. (3) Simplicity; Provision—God promised to provide daily bread, not daily slice of "Louis XIII" pizza. (4) Hospitality—Hospitality is more about love and openness than about trying to offer a "world's best meal." Encourage people to keep it simple.

Palmer Luckey, is a billionaire tech entrepreneur who founded Oculus and parlayed that fortune into a career as a Silicon Valley defense contractor. Luckey collects cars and he needed a place to store them. According to Forbes, when his classic car collection had outgrown his $12.5 million oceanfront mansion in Newport Beach, California, the solution was obvious: Buy the $3.8 million house across the road, demolish it, and build an elaborate 7,000 square foot building with four car elevators.

The project went smoothly — until Luckey got trapped in his own car elevator for 10 minutes. That’s according to a new lawsuit Luckey took out against the contractor responsible for building the elevator.

According to the lawsuit, this has happened more than once and led to millions of dollars in damages. Custom Cabs and construction company WT Durant, who are the defendants in the case, have denied Luckey’s allegations. Custom Cabs told Forbes that it had filed a motion to strike the lawsuit’s claims. WT Durant said it had worked with Luckey several times before this incident and that he’d never before had an issue.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Wealthy people are often tempted to spend their money indulging in luxuries and extravagant items. On the other hand, the poor are struggling more and more. They experience severe challenges like hunger, lack of housing, and inequality. This situation highlights the growing divide between the rich and the poor which is a significant issue in our society. God’s people are called to be generous and share the blessings God has given to them (Luke 6:38; 1 John 3:17)

Religious and non-religious people alike think that many people are living shallow and superficial lives. They have noticed that many are rushing through life at break-neck speeds, with little regard or thought to what they are doing. Author Pete Davis explores this issue by going back to 1986 and the improbable opening of a McDonald's restaurant in Italy:

When the burger chain opened in the Piazza di Spagna, one of the most famous squares in Rome, an outcry erupted across Italy. Thousands rallied to protest what Italians saw as the desecration of a historic center by a symbol of shallow consumerism. One of the chain's opponents, Italian journalist Carlo Petrini, thought sign and angry chants were not enough to convey the depth of the protest's message. So, he went to the square and handed out bowls of pasta, a symbol of Italy's deep culinary tradition. Petrini and his compatriots shouted: “We don't want fast food. We want slow food.”

Thus, the International Slow Food movement was born, advocating not just for local cuisines but "slow and prolonged enjoyment.” The Slow Food movement spread around the world. It was perfectly timed for an era when people were beginning to notice the downsides of the global forces that had been prioritizing quantity over quality, spectacle over depth, and the fast over the slow. It felt bigger than food. It was a whole different mindset than that being served up by the global corporations of the day.

Davis ends the segment by quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson and elaborates:

“In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.” When there's not much underneath the surface of our superficial routines, best to move fast to distract ourselves from our shallowness. When we force ourselves to move slow again, as the Slow movement calls us to do, we confront it. The confrontation can be terrifying. But as we move through it, we can begin to rediscover depth.

More than 40% of commercials shown during the 2023 Super Bowl game featured multiple celebrities, a nearly sixfold increase from 2010. 2024’s game was no different. Many star-studded commercials featured celebrities, including a Michelob Ultra spot featuring Lionel Messi, Jason Sudeikis, and Dan Marino, and a BetMGM ad starring Tom Brady, Vince Vaughn, and Wayne Gretzky.

Brands are leaning more on celebrities because there is “so much pressure to break out,” said one branding strategist. Celebrities help advertisers get noticed and help them tap into the buzz on social media, “because people will share that sort of thing more than they will share a product story,” the strategist added.

Celebrity-free Super Bowl ads have now become a rarity: They accounted for less than a third of all commercials shown during the game in recent years. There is a downside to the approach. “There are so many celebrities appearing during the game, and it is really hard to tie the celebrity to the brand,” said the branding expert. “It’s celebrity soup.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

The Bible encourages Christians to be discerning and to think critically. So, when faced with celebrity endorsements, it's important to evaluate the claims made and to consider the motivations behind the endorsement. Christians should not blindly accept everything they see or hear, but should use their discernment to make informed decisions.

Giant companies that study us in hopes of unearthing insights that can help them sell more potato chips, laundry detergent, and lipstick have reached a conclusion that economists and pollsters have also found. We are unhappy—squeezed by inflation, troubled by global conflicts, and worried about an acrimonious election season. The companies are calibrating their pitches to entice us to open our wallets as a way of improving our collective mood.

Clorox thinks it can help with a new toilet bomb, a tablet of cleaner that foams and fizzes in the toilet bowl and releases a pleasant scent. “People are looking for a spark of fun and joy,” said Clorox’s general manager of cleaning. “We all know the world can get messy, but we understand the link between a clean environment and one’s physical and emotional well-being.”

As part of what Clorox calls a “consumer-obsessed” approach, staffers started using artificial-intelligence tools to scan digital media for new ideas. The Foaming Toilet Bomb is its first product from this initiative.

Procter & Gamble combs societal trends to select a scent of the year. So, P&G declared “Romance & Desire” its scent of the year, and bequeathed it to anxious Americans in the form of new Febreze air fresheners with a fragrance of pink rose petals and champagne spritz. The product line is intended to offer a sensory reminder of the importance of human connection, the company said.

As 29-year-old Neha Wright checked her mailbox and brought in the latest batch of bills, she realized the moment had finally arrived: Her childhood love of receiving a letter in the mail had officially been replaced with a very adult fear of receiving a letter in the mail.

Neha’s parents recall that as a kid, she would teem with excitement when she got a letter addressed to her and would run to open it. Neha’s mother said, “Most of the time it was something boring like a postcard from a cousin or a school paper. She’d check the mailbox every evening after school if she knew a letter was on the way.”

Now that she’s reached adulthood, seeing a letter in the mail sends a chill down Neha’s spine, and its sort of up in the air whether she will open it at all. She continued, “It’s almost always my electric bill or a notice from my bank, two of the scariest things a girl can receive. I’m pretty sure that if I don’t open it, I can’t be legally held responsible for the contents!”

According to her bank, this is untrue, but when reporters tried to inform Neha of this, she simply closed her eyes, held her hands over her ears, and said, “Lalalalalalala.”

Neha said, “It’s hard to imagine there was once a time where I loved receiving mail, because it meant $20 from my grandparents. Imagine opening mail and gaining money? That must’ve been awesome!”

Neha’s adulthood disdain for mail does not, however, apply to packages, which have retained their childlike wonder. If anything, Neha’s joy at receiving a package has only grown. “Oh, yeah, letters and packages are very different,” Neha continued. “Letters are scary and packages are tiny little glimmers of hope that carry things like clothing and skincare products. I’m super pro-package.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Obviously, this is a humorous, but not so hypothetical, situation. How many of us overspend during the holidays, or put an expensive trip on our credit card, only to be shocked when the bill arrives whether by mail or email?

As Christmas approaches, too many parents will be competing to track down and purchase the latest and greatest toy that their child has set their heart on. Take a break from your frenzied competition with other parents to look back at the “5 Best Toys of All Time.” It’s guaranteed that you won’t guess them, even though you should.

So, here are five items that no kid should be without. All five should fit easily within any budget, and are appropriate for a wide age range so you get the most play out of each one. These are time-tested and kid-approved!

1. Stick

This versatile toy is a real classic—chances are your great-great-grandparents played with one. Stick works really well as a poker, digger, and reach-extender. Stick comes in an almost bewildering variety of sizes and shapes, but at least the classic wooden version is biodegradable.

2. Box

Box also comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. You can turn your kids into cardboard robots or create elaborate Star Wars costumes. A large box can be used as a fort or house and the smaller box can be used to hide away a special treasure. Got a Stick? Use it as an oar and the box becomes a boat. One particularly famous kid has used the box as a key component of a time machine, a duplicator and a transmogrifier, among other things.

3. String

Kids absolutely love string. The most obvious use of string is tying things together. You can use it to hang things from doorknobs or tie little siblings to chairs or make leashes for your stuffed animals. Use string with two cans for a telephone, or with a stick to make a fishing pole.

4. Cardboard Tube

The cardboard tube comes free with a roll of paper towels and other products. Some kids have nicknamed the cardboard tube the "Spyer" for its most common use as a telescope. Or tape two of them together for use as binoculars. But if you happen to be lucky enough to get a large size from Christmas wrapping paper, the best use is probably whacking things.

5. Dirt

One of kids’ favorite things to play with is dirt. As we grow up, we pick up an interest in cleanliness and aren’t such a fan of dirt anymore. Many parents aren't so fond of it either. But dirt has been around longer than any of the other toys on this list, and shows no signs of going away. In fact, there are some studies have shown that kids who play with dirt have stronger immune systems than those who don't.

So, what can you do with dirt? Well, it's great for digging and piling and making piles. Dirt makes a great play surface for toy trucks and cars. Just add water and—presto!—you've got mud! Dirt is definitely an outdoor toy, despite your kids' frequent attempts to bring it indoors. If they insist, you'll probably want to get the optional accessories broom and dustpan. But as long as it's kept in its proper place, dirt can be loads of fun.

We used to have a short Halloween season, a nice slow-paced Thanksgiving, and then around mid-November we'd see Christmas stuff out for sale. Well, now these three events are getting mashed together in what one author calls a "HalloweenthanksgivingChristmaspalooza."

Ellyn von Huben notes, "I've noticed that so much of society's sense of holiday celebrations has been condensed that it is hard to even see what holiday we are headed toward."

Possible Preaching Angle:

This story (and her wonderful new word to describe this season) provides a great way to help your congregation slow down, take a deep breath, and focus on Christ and the true meaning of Advent, which Von Huben defines at "The time in which we prepare our hearts for the celebration of Our Lord made flesh to dwell among us."

On Sept. 29, 1916, newspapers across the country announced a wealth milestone once thought to be unreachable: the world’s first billionaire. “Standard (Oil) at $2,014 makes its head a billionaire,” blared The New York Times headline, adding that Standard Oil’s soaring share price “makes John D. Rockefeller, founder and largest shareholder, almost certainly a billionaire.”

Now more than a century after the first U.S. billionaire, the question of who will be first to reach the trillionaire mark continues to fascinate. According to a new report from Informa Connect Academy, Tesla CEO Elon Musk will likely be the first trillionaire sometime in 2027, assuming that his wealth continues to grow at an annual average rate of 110%.

The second person projected to reach trillionaire status will be India’s Gautam Adani, founder of the Adani Group conglomerate, in 2028. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, who has seen his wealth skyrocket from $3 billion to more than $90 billion in five years, would become a trillionaire by 2028. Fourth on the list is Indonesia’s Prajogo Pangestu, founder of the Indonesian energy and mining conglomerate Barito Pacific, who could reach trillionaire status by 2028.

Tied for fifth would be LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg who are forecast to become trillionaires sometime in 2030. Some top billionaires who seem like strong candidates to quickly reach the four-comma club don’t make the top 10. Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the Google founders, are all slated to wait 12 years to become trillionaires.

So, more than 100 years after the first billionaire, the first trillionaire could well be crowned in the next decade.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The Bible does not condemn wealth, as such, since Abraham, Job, and Solomon, among others, were very wealthy individuals. What the Bible does warn about is the love of money being the root of all kinds of evil (1 Tim. 6:10), the oppression of the poor by the rich (Jam. 5:1-6), and placing faith in the earthly “security” of wealth, rather than in God (Prov. 18:10-11, Matt. 6:19-21). The warnings are intended to encourage a balanced approach to wealth and possessions, recognizing that true fulfillment comes from a relationship with God and serving others.

Maybe money does buy happiness, after all—especially if you can afford more of it than your pals.

That’s according to the findings of a recent working paper distributed by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The paper used a survey of Dutch households to determine whether believing you’re in better financial standing than your peers can impact your beliefs and behavior.

The most striking finding? Believing you earn more than your peers—whom researchers defined as people of similar age, education, and marital and homeownership status—actually makes you happier.

That impact was evident regardless of actual income, researchers said. In other words, it didn’t matter how much money respondents actually made, only how it compared with others’ earnings. One of the lead authors of the study said, “When you realize your [relative] position is good, then you’re more happy, It’s not about the absolute number.”

People living in remote Indigenous communities are as happy as those in wealthy developed countries despite having “very little money,” according to new scientific research. This could challenge the widely held perception that “money buys happiness.”

Researchers who interviewed 2,966 people in 19 Indigenous local communities across the world found that on average they were as happy – if not happier – as the average person in high-income western countries.

According to researchers, “Surprisingly, many populations with very low monetary incomes report very high average levels of life satisfaction, with scores similar to those in wealthy countries. I would hope that, by learning more about what makes life satisfying in these diverse communities, it might help many others to lead more satisfying lives.”

The study found that people in the 19 isolated communities reported an average “life satisfaction score” of 6.8 out of 10 “even though most of the sites have estimated annual monetary incomes of less than US $1,000 per person.”

This is roughly the same as the 6.7 average life satisfaction score for all countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Surprisingly, four of the small communities reported average happiness scores of more than 8, which is higher than that found in Finland, the highest-rated country with an average of 7.9.

The report says its findings proves that wealth – as generated by industrialized economies – is not fundamentally required for humans to lead happy lives.

An insightful Aperture video reveals the sad reality that our happiness, or lack of, is always at a regular baseline. It only fluctuates slightly despite all our attempts at bliss and euphoria.

You wake up in the morning and go to work. You spend eight hours working away at your desk on a job you once loved but now kind of just tolerate. It's 5:00 p.m., you go home, eat dinner, and watch TV, only to do it all over again the next day. You play sports or catch up with friends on the weekend and life's good, but you still feel like something is missing.

Now imagine you get that well deserved promotion and a healthy raise and suddenly you're going on those vacations you once dreamt of. Driving a nicer car, receiving more status and respect in the workplace. Your quality of life has been significantly upgraded and finally you feel like you're fulfilling your potential. Fancy restaurants, rubbing elbows with influential people, your life feels new and almost foreign compared to where you came from.

Yet in a year or so your once brand-new Porsche just becomes your daily driver. All the imported sushi starts to taste the same and while you still frequent white sandy beaches and pristine ski slopes, these places have lost their allure.

You've completely changed your life but you're still in the same position you were in before you got the promotion. Those things that used to excite you have become stale, mundane, and boring. The reason why you'll never be happy is called “hedonic adaptation.” Hedonic adaptation is the tendency to return to a base level of happiness even when undergoing profound periods of positive or negative change.

Theft—or "shrinkage" as the retail industry calls it—is a big problem for stores that use self-checkout kiosks. The machines have created a new kind of "partial shrink" where someone pays for most of their stuff, but skips a few items.

One study revealed that about 6.7% of orders had some items that went unscanned (including accidentally)—far higher than the typical 0.3% shrink rate for a fully-staffed checkout. It might not surprise you that in a survey of 5,000 shoppers, the majority admitted to accidentally bagging an item that didn't scan at the kiosk.

But something the survey revealed that might be surprising? Wealthier people were most likely of all to intentionally steal, they told surveyors. Of people who admitted to stealing, the biggest group was among the 18% of people with household incomes of more than $100,000. (When considering people with household incomes under $35,000, 14% said they'd purposely taken an item without scanning it.)

Terrence Schulman a lawyer of the Schulman Center for Compulsive Theft, Shopping and Hoarding said, “I want to admit that I don't know what the truth is, but I'll give you a few theories”:

I think that a lot of people who are higher-income and more well-to-do probably aren't quite as delighted to have all this self-service kind of stuff, like checkout or having to pump your own gas. I'm generalizing, but maybe for wealthier people, it's just another hassle — or it's kind of beneath them. So that's one possibility: that it's kind of like a silent protest. Like, why do I have to do this?

Another thought is that scanning a $10 item for a wealthy person, that's like a penny to them. So, there's already a different kind of attitude about money.

There might be even a subconscious kind of thought of: “Hey, if I got caught, if I ever did get in trouble, I have the resources — I could hire an attorney, or I could call somebody. I know how to make something happen.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Having wealth often leads a person to an attitude of superiority, privilege, and a sense of being “above the law.” But all of us need to guard against making excuses for unlawful or immoral behavior as though we deserve it.

About seven in ten respondents in a survey said they strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement: “Having more money would solve most of my problems.” Similar proportions of people in each income bracket felt that way, including those with salaries of $200,000 or more.

Exactly how much more money do we think we need to be happy? A survey from the financial-services company Empower put the question to about 2,000 people.

In the survey, most people said it would take a pretty significant pay bump to deliver contentment. The respondents, who had a median salary of $65,000 a year, said a median of $95,000 would make them happy and less stressed. The highest earners, with a median income of $250,000, gave a median response of $350,000.

Even very wealthy people think like this. A 2018 study asked millionaires to rate their happiness on a scale from one to ten and, if they didn’t say ten, predict how much money they would need to move one point higher. Slightly over half of those with a net worth of $10 million or more said their wealth would need to increase by at least 50%.