People in industrialized nations used to be called “citizens.” Now we are “consumers”—which means (according to the dictionary definition of “consume”) people who “use up,” “waste,” “destroy,” and “squander.”

The people I found had already incorporated the broken promise of the old American Dream into their lives and were designing their lives not around a ladder of success but around meaning, creativity, flexibility, and a sort of rapid prototyping not just of jobs but of entire careers.

Along with racism and sexism, our society has a hidden hierarchy based on what you do for money. That’s called jobism, and it pervades our interactions with one another on the job, in social settings, and even at home.

we now meet most of our needs, wants, and desires through money. We buy everything from hope to happiness. We no longer live life. We consume it.

Endless desire is one of the pitfalls of human nature, and one of the first things you need to cure if you want to get ahead more quickly.

Money is something you trade your life energy for. You sell your time for money. It doesn’t matter that Ned over there sells his time for a hundred dollars and you sell yours for twenty dollars an hour. Ned’s money is irrelevant to you. The only real asset you have is your time. The hours of your life.

Financial Independence has nothing to do with rich. It is the experience of having enough—and then some.

Endless desire is one of the pitfalls of human nature, and one of the first things you need to cure if you want to get ahead more quickly.

Enter the concept of “standard of living.” A new art, science, and industry dubbed “marketing” was born to convince Americans that they were working to elevate their standard of living rather than to satisfy basic economic needs.