The benefits of high status are similarly seldom limited to wealth. We should not be surprised to find many of the already affluent con-tinuing to accumulate sums beyond anything that five generationsmight spend. Their endeavours are peculiar only if we insist on astrictly material rationale behind wealth creation. As much asmoney, they seek the respect that stands to be derived from theprocess of gathering it. Few of us are determined aesthetes orsybarites, yet almost all of us hunger for dignity; and if a future soci-ety were to offer love as a reward for accumulating small plastic discs, then it would not be long before such worthless items too assumed acentral place in our most zealous aspirations and anxieties. - P7
Given the precariousness of our self-image, it should not be surprising that, from an emotional point of view no less than from a material one, we are anxious about the place we occupy in the world. Thisplace will determine how much love we are offered and so, in turn,whether we can like or must lose confidence in ourselves. It holds thekey to a commodity of unprecedented importance to us: a love with-out which we will be unable to trust or abide by our own characters. - P10