The $38,000 hand bag: if you had more money, how would your lifestyle change?

[Zorra]

54. I have a great life, and have more than I need, which is relatively little.

I have seen first hand, close up and personal, all too often, what having too much money does to some people.

When Power Goes To Your Head, It May Shut Out Your Heart
by Chris Benderev
August 10, 2013 7:41 AM

"What we're finding is power diminishes all varieties of empathy," says Dacher Keltner, a social psychologist at University of California, Berkeley, not involved in the new study. He says these results fit a trend within psychological research.

"Whether you're with a team at work [or] your family dinner, all of that hinges on how we adapt our behaviors to the behaviors of other people," he says. "And power takes a bite out of that ability, which is too bad."

The good news, Keltner says, is an emerging field of research that suggests powerful people who begin to forget their subordinates can be coached back to their compassionate selves.

That said, I am quite sure that I would travel more if I had more money. One thing that is really a lot of fun to do when traveling in Third World countries is to walk the streets of cities and towns and give money to the folks who are sitting on the sidewalks begging. Especially the single moms, blind folks, and folks with no legs, etc. Seriously, it is a major hoot, I highly recommend it. It's actually kind of selfish, in a way, because the relief, disbelief, and joy you see when a desperate person gets a 200 peso note in their cup is a total endorphin rush.

But, well, ya know, if someone desperately feels that they need to own a $30,000 pair of shoes, or eat a $10,000 dish of caviar extracted from fish that are going extinct, who am I to criticize?