Elshof: Why we believe we're not well off (great quote!)

In explaining self-deception in regard to how well off we are by global standards, Elshof suggests we keep within a sphere similar to our own where have agreed to not ask awkward questions:

This is why the lifestyle in the next stratum up from wherever you are situated will look to you as though it teeters on the edge of exorbitance and gross materialism - but it won't look so to those situated there.  For them it will be the strata above them that satisfies that description.  We surround ourselves with those willing to ignore the questions with respect to our particular standard of living.  In so doing, we make possible a blindness not otherwise possible to the grip of materialism.  The last thing a rich man wants to do is accuse his rich neighbour of being too rich.

I Told Me So, p82

Eliot: perfect systems

Read part of this quotation in an article questioning what would happen if all politicians and laws were just right - would we have the life we want?

They constantly try to escape
From the darkness outside and within
By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.
But the man that is shall shadow
The man that pretends to be.


TS Eliot