i think it comes from a childhood in which enough trauma has occurred to make the person, fundamentally, no matter how skillful the masks constructed to cover the horrible fact, end their natural tendency to trust other humans as a positive force.

this translates to a fear that one's survival is threatened, and therefore advantage over others is the best hedge against failure.

because money in this world is fetishised above all other symbols, the accumulation of it becomes a bulwark against annihilation.

this behaviour perpetuates until reality ruptures this membrane of paranoia, either positively through love or some other, less pleasurable port of entry.

i think what we're seeing now is a large number of people whose belief systems, conditioned by a few generations of fossil-fuelled grandiosity sufferers, are becoming ruptured, en masse.

to get this money to try and soothe the inner wound, others are seen as stepping stones, or gulls to exploit.

it's a mental illness, this attachment to a social construct that has been promoted as panacea, but in effect is revealed as a perversion.

this perversion has caused unbelievable amounts of pain and injustice through history, and continues to do so, though there is a growing number of people who cannot accept the consensus delusion, and are preparing to help create a different kind of social construct which would permit less exploitation, and thus be more compassionate.

2c

welcome to ET bilejones!

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

It's trite to say it, but to accumulate wealth you need more coming in than going out.  Education helps. Free education definitely helps.  No student loans when I was at university. Delaying motherhood probably helps.  Not being single helps.  Steady, professional employment with a pension scheme helps.  Being in a position to inherit because your parents/grandparents had the same advantages helps.