The immigrant credo 'to make money', and the need to find security in one's happiness against wealth

I've had this thought for quite a while now. This has been discussed with friends and acquaintances. More recently, I told it to people in NP's wedding. The discussion with JW -- who happens to be seeing someone, against my hope ack -- was specially productive. She is at a point where she just wants to explore more in life, to understand what other people are doing, to understand the whole more holistically. I took that opportunity to unload my philosophy on her.

The immigrant credo to 'make more money', the constant drive to be promoted, find better jobs, and just make increasing amount of money is overdone. It's specially pitiable because some of my friends equate wealth with happiness. A good friend of mine who I won't mention believes literally that if one is wealthy enough, their moral failings don't matter, they must be doing something right. It's...frustrating, I find myself in company of people who I'm not aligned with in our approach to life.

Wealth is necessary. One must have the base level of necessities and desires fulfilled. A happy and content person would be sadly wasted if they didn't have the money to cure them of physical illness. But money can go only so far. It can create situation where one is able to explore contention and happiness. People who are trained to earn money for the sake of it forget that. They see wealth as an end, not as a tool to enable the journey to find contentment. As a result they remain unhappy, unsatisfied, forever chasing that thing they can't quite place. They have been corrupted inside my the insidious desire they don't understand. If you've been told you can touch the Sun if you jump high enough, but no amount of mountain-climbing gets you there, it will quickly become frustrating. Those chasing money try to relieve that frustration by spending increasing sums of money, hoping retail therapy can turn into sustained peace.

It never does. Somehow. Their vision is so focused and blinded, they fail to see there are alternatives. Their innate 'immigrant credo' to make more money helped them rise the ranks and be respected. It failed to give them what they truly desired: peace, and ultimately the lack of desire.

We must be secure in that wealth is not the end-all, it's not even that much. We must seek peace, happiness, community, connection. Wealth-gathering for the sake of it is great as a hobby, but a terrible craft.