Nothing is more dangerous than not knowing what's enough

Laozi wrote: no disaster is greater than not knowing what is enough. No fault is greater than the desire to acquire. Therefore the satisfaction of knowing what is enough is a lasting satisfaction.

He's not making an argument for poverty. Read the chapter around it, and he's writing about war being caused by appetite. He's making an argument about arithmetic.

Appetite, when it's not examined, is infinite by construction. You never feel satisfied because satisfaction isn't the thing it's measuring. It's measuring distance to the next position. As long as there is a next position, distance exists.

Ask somebody earning more than they need whether they feel free, and they'll tell you about the next milestone. Ask them what they'd feel like if the milestone was reached, and they'll tell you they'd relax, and they say it with a face that tells you they know they won't.

The useful work is unglamorous and takes one evening. Write down what a good week would actually contain, at your current means. Not a good decade. A good week. Then look at how many of those things you already reliably have.

Most people find that they've been living inside a good week and calling it not enough.

MOJOWAY asks the sufficiency question directly, on the record, once a week. Recognizing enough is a skill, and like every skill it needs a place where it's actually practised.