perception of money

People obsess about money. However, the manner in which they discuss money depends on how much of it they have. Now, I'll admit that my experiences with participating or listening to discussions about money are somewhat limited, but I've heard more than a few stories.

Many people feel like they never make enough or have enough money. In a way, that's a good thing. The desire for more drives people to work and provides motivation for people to participate in a capitalistic economic system, which I have found to be fairly efficient all things considered. But in another way, it's a terrible thing to listen to people complain about their money problems without actually doing anything tangible to address them. (I suppose the same could be said of almost all problems.)

On the other hand, a much smaller number of people have, or feel they have, enough money (for their current station in life) and consequently view their money differently. It's as if there is some sort of point of inflection, like a change in perception of what money really is. If you don't have enough or don't think you do, it's this daily thing, this need to constantly scrounge for more to make ends meet. It's as if money is viewed as a possession continually to be parted with. It continually loses value in that situation. However, if you have enough or feel you do the value of money changes. To me, it appears to change positively, both from a sort of happiness standpoint as well as an economic standpoint. It becomes an asset to use to exchange for goods or services or other assets. It gains value in this case.

So how do you end up on one side or the other?