Many dream about one day becoming wealthy so that like Topol in Fiddler on the Roof they “wouldn’t have to work hard”. But the common concept of wealth that many embrace is rather nebulous and often associated with lots of money that makes extravagant pursuits affordable and within reach. This is no surprise as consumerism underpins the ethos of modern society.

I remember the Celtic Tiger days a few years ago when one could hardly go to a social gathering in Dublin without the conversation diverting to the subject of how much wealthier people felt because their house was valued at multiples of what they had bought it for in the decade before the property boom.

Governments, of course, nurture this illusion and are prepared to print as much money as is needed to create the feel-good factor which is so crucial to win elections in a democracy.

Booms and busts are economic phenomena that intrigue both economists and sociologists.

In times of boom, we see people earning more money as more houses, office towers and hotels are built.

People buy new cars, appliances and gadgets, and travel more to flaunt their perceived new status. The stock markets boom and those who invest in them feel they have now gone up another step in the wealth ladder because they see appreciation in their financial assets.

Sooner or later, reality catches up with all of us. It often destroys our illusion of efficiency and wealth

Often the result of booms is inflation and even if today few are predicting an immediate return to high inflation, it is inevitable that the printing of money by central banks will bring back inflation with a vengeance.

Those who will suffer most as a result of this reality check will probably be the very same people who were fooled into thinking that they had become wealthy.

Ludwig von Mises, the Austrian economist and philosopher, in his book Human Action, writes: “The boom produces impoverishment. But still more disastrous are its moral ravages. It makes people despondent and dispirited.

“The more optimistic they were under the illusory prosperity of the boom, the greater is their despair and their feeling of frustration. The individual is always ready to ascribe his good luck to his own efficiency and to take it as a well-deserved reward for his talent application. But he always charges to other people reverses of fortune, and most of all to the absurdity of social and political institutions.

“ He does not blame the authorities for having fostered the boom. He reviles them for the inevitable collapse.”

Some politicians are experts in understanding this very human tendency and they exploit it to the full. They create booms so that people get enamoured with get-rich-quick schemes – whether developing property or providing a product or service that sells well in a boom.

People scorn sober effort in favour of getting in on the house-flipping craze. Ordinary working people work two or three jobs to buy a house with a mortgage that they can barely afford.

Politicians tell them they are doing the right thing because this is what social mobility is all about.

Sooner or later, reality catches up with all of us. It often destroys our illusion of efficiency and wealth.

Some politicians will try to deflect the anger of disillusioned people when an economic bubble bursts by reminding them that being wealthy also means having the peace of mind that when you retire you will not struggle with poverty.

In 2015, the Conservative Party fought the UK general election with a key manifesto commitment “to introduce new rules designed to prevent older people having to sell their homes when they go to care”.

Now the same Conservative leaders are warning: “People need to realise that the responsibility for their care in old age principally lay with themselves, their own finances and their own assets.”

Put simply, the welfare state that was supposed to care for you from the cradle to the grave is unlikely to provide any safety net to helpless elderly people who once thought of themselves as being rich because they could afford one or two holidays every year, ate well, sent their children to private schools but saved very little for their retirement.

Many economists and some sociologists insist that there needs to be a greater awareness and a culture of personal responsibility, a sense that “I do need to save, I do need to be in a strong position”.

So the real wealthy are those who save for a rainy day.

johncassarwhite@yahoo.com