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When I argue that most human problems are economic in nature rather than spiritual, I often encounter resistance. The objection usually stems from a narrow understanding of what “economic” means. Economic problems are not limited to the absence of money or material resources. They also arise from excess, mismanagement, pressure, and the psychological burdens that accompany wealth. In that sense, poverty and affluence can produce the same category of problems, expressed differently.
Getting rich, as history repeatedly shows, is often easier than staying rich. Sustaining wealth introduces anxiety, fear of loss, social pressure, and identity crises. The depression that comes from maintaining status, influence, or financial power is still an economic problem. It is therefore not surprising that the phrase “more money, more problems” has endured across cultures. It captures a simple truth: economic conditions, whether defined by scarcity or abundance, shape human suffering.
Even health challenges are largely economic in origin. With the exception of genetic conditions or unavoidable cellular mutations, many modern health problems are consequences of economic pursuits—overwork, stress, poor diets driven by productivity demands, and environmental degradation linked to profit-making activities. Furthermore, resolving health issues almost always requires economic resources: access to healthcare, medication, rest, and time. To pretend that health exists outside economic reality is to ignore how modern life is structured.
A common counterpoint arises when people’s material needs are fully met. At that stage, a deeper question emerges: Is this all there is to life? Those who ask this are often described as spiritually awakened, as if they have transcended material concerns. In reality, they are still pursuing something—only the object has changed. Instead of wealth or comfort, the goal becomes peace of mind, meaning, salvation, or continuity beyond death.
What is often overlooked is that all pursuits—material or spiritual—are mediated by the same instrument: the human mind. Nothing is attained outside cognition. Whether one seeks money, enlightenment, heaven, or inner peace, the process begins and ends in the mind. There is no separate mental faculty for spirituality and another for material ambition. Both desires arise from the same cognitive source.
The tension arises when those seeking spiritual rewards position themselves as morally superior to those pursuing material success. Materialists are often accused of vanity, attachment, and emptiness. Yet this critique ignores the existence of spiritual vanity. Wanting to go to heaven, to achieve enlightenment, or to secure eternal life is also a form of self-interest. It is a pursuit of preservation, permanence, and reassurance in the face of uncertainty and death.
Spiritually vain individuals frequently exhibit the same traits they condemn in materialists: judgment, hierarchy, and exclusion. The belief that one’s God is the only true God mirrors the belief that one’s wealth signifies superiority. Neurologically, both pursuits trigger the same reward mechanisms. The dopamine released by financial success is not fundamentally different from the dopamine released by the assurance of divine favor or eternal reward.
At its core, much of spirituality is driven by fear—fear of death, fear of meaninglessness, fear of impermanence. The promise of an afterlife or a supreme being who guarantees continuity is profoundly comforting. But comfort does not equal truth. When examined critically, the concept of God can be understood as a psychological invention designed to manage existential anxiety. The human mind, remarkable as it is, has a long history of inventing constructs to soothe fear. Some of these inventions have been creative and life-affirming; others have been destructive.
Arguably, the most consequential of these inventions is God. In many cases, this idea has been used to justify division, violence, moral absolutism, and the suspension of critical thought. While it has also inspired compassion and community, its darker legacy cannot be ignored. The problem is not belief itself, but the unexamined elevation of belief into unquestionable truth.
Ultimately, framing human problems as economic is not a dismissal of meaning or inner life. It is an insistence on honesty. Whether we chase money or heaven, we are responding to conditions created by how we organize life, resources, labor, and fear. Until we are willing to examine those foundations without privileging one form of desire over another, we will continue to mislabel our problems—and misunderstand ourselves.
Torch Media Africa