I don't see why it should be so polarized. You can care enough about money to understand the components of your compensation. You can also care about quality of life enough to make decisions that trade money earned for other goals.

There's an attitude of "money is unpure" that is destructive. Even if you are not motivated mainly by money, you will need to understand it so that you aren't taken advantage of by people who are motivated and fluent. Thinking you are above this is just an excuse for laziness - it's about as realistic as saying you're above eating healthy and exercising.

I think this largely depends on how much money you are chasing and your aspirations.

I care about money not because I want to have lots of things but because I want the freedom to work on my own ideas (without selling my soul to a VC). A certain amount of money early in life can greatly change your trajectory, for better or for worse. It just takes discipline.

That still needs to be balanced, though. As you get older, you'll lose time to other things. You may get sick, injured, or die. There is no guarantee that you will have a "later".

So find the balance - live enough to be happy with today, but work enough to be prepared for tomorrow.

But more money is always better - if you don't need it, donate it to an animal shelter or something.

What do you think happens to money that you leave on the table? Someone else takes it, and they might spend it less responsibly than you would. So if it's there take it and then at least you can control it.

There is a cost to gathering up the money left on the table. That's the whole point.

That is abdicating your responsibility. Think of the kittens!

Many people were raised under a stigma of any conversation of money, and any self directed acquisition of it being sketchy

So they get taken advantage of by people that don't have that stigma

    > That's why [those who don't care about money are] 
    > willfully disengaged from these issues.

One can argue that it's irresponsible for those who have access to power to refuse to wield it. After all, not deciding is essentially a decision to support the status quo.