In many ways, both extreme wealth and extreme poverty MAGNIFY who we are on the inside.
Pursuing wealth for its own sake may be a fool's game, but, as Jim Rohn famously said: "pursue wealth not for material gain, but for the person you'll become in the process."
Wealth is a leverage point for your destination, not the destination itself.
As I discovered, it is a fool's game. Thanks for your insights and I would add that once you lose everything, you show who you truly are. You also begin to identify with 90% of the world's population. I am glad I lost everything. It has made me a much better person. I shudder to think what I would be like if I had never been served a plate of broken dreams.
Aaaah, the true purpose of adversity and why life sucks, if only we could all develop this perspective.
The only way to gain such a perspective is to get filthy rich then be cast to the gutter. Intellectualizing the concept doesn't yield true results.