ADA PELİN AKBAY
Cardiff 2
IS STINGINESS A KIND OF DISEASE ?
In 21th century, we can see that stinginess is increasing day by day. Many people confuse stinginess and frugality. The common feature of stinginess and frugality is the desire to ensure life. Also, we can observe that most stingy people deny that they are stingy. The difference between stinginess and frugality is that stinginess seriously affects people’s entire life. There are three main consequences of stinginess: It harms human relations, it damages mental health and it prevents people from taking risks.
First of all, one effect of stinginess is that stinginess harms human relations. Stingy people may have difficulties in social relationships. Their inability to participate in many material activities that seem ordinary may make them this way. Even when socializing, money is more on their minds that communication, which can be uncomfortable for both themselves and others. Just imagine: Your friend has money, but you can’t do anything, you are stuck where you are. Wouldn’t it bother you if this situation was repeated over and over again after a while?
Secondly, another effect is that stinginess damages mental health. On the other hand, stinginess harms our mental health without realizing it. Is stinginess innate or learned? Stinginess is a personality trait shaped by the financial resources our family has and what we were taught in our childhood. That is why we can say that before judging stingy people, it is useful to look at their childhood. Stingy people feel very self-confident when they save more money than necessary, because they associate materiality with self-confidence. We can also see that most stingy people can’t have a positive perspective with statements such as “I don’t have any money” and have difficulty in having a positive perspective. Such situations can cause people to feel psychologically depressed, stuck and create a feeling of loneliness.
Thirdly, one of the most important effects is that stinginess prevents people from taking risks. Stingy people can’t take a step because they are afraid of life, and this causes them to always stay in the same place. Stingy people always choose the path they find reliable, going out of routine is scary for them. In such situations, what stingy people need to know is this: “Their comfort zone will kill them, not changes.” Humans are social by nature and can change. Therefore, not complying with this human nature will harm the person. Karl Marx has a very meaningful saying: “Human is the subject of history; human changes, changes.”
In summary, stinginess is a personality trait that touches many aspects of a person’s life and extremely harmful. For this reason, we can consider whether stinginess is a kind of disease. Scientifically stinginess is not a disease. From my point of view, it is wrong to accept a personality trait that is so damaging to mental health because it is not a disease and try not to change it.
So, what do you think?
Is stinginess acceptable?