Deviance on a Global scale

I believe that we cannot simply talk about the world-wide common successful goal as the accumulation of wealth. Like you have mentioned the example of those owners of guesthouses in South Asia, there are places where success seems to not be put in belonging to a higher class. I believe that there’s also a movement where success is seen in how “happy” a person is. This scale of happiness definitely differs among people and may include financial success for some people, however, it can also include factors like finding one’s true love and building a family or following one’s dreams and doing what you love. I’ve noticed that all of these different factors add up differently depending on the person and form “happiness” which is an indication of success. This is why I don't believe that the global society as a whole is promoting the common goal as accumulation of wealth. In this sense I also believe that maybe no one is restricted from achieving the common goal because, if people can gain “happiness” in their own individual way they each has their own means to do so. For example, a person born in the county side who find happiness in living healthy with his/her family is not restricted in achieving this goal like they would be if his/her goal was the accumulation of wealth.

I think that a large portion of the globalized society is in fact promoting the common success-goal of wealth accumulation whether we want it or not. We are almost always socially conditioned to accumulate wealth without even noticing and this is because we are taught from a very young age that we are supposed to finish high school and go to university in order to get a good career. By doing this, we are told that by our parents, teachers, etc. that we will be successful. This transition from post secondary education to future career is taken for granted and we assume that this is how our life is supposed to be. Even though we may individually have different ideas of what “happiness” is, which equates to our “success”, like having a family as Kami mentioned, in order to get that “happiness” we must accumulate wealth because nothing in life comes for free. One’s good health for example is interconnected with their wealth, to have children and a family and for that, you need to accumulate money and so on. At the end of the day our globalized society is driven by our economy. Therefore, I would say that we are promoting “deviance” for people who don’t have the means to receive education or take any of the institutionalized procedures to accumulate wealth.

I agree with Sonia's comment. The harsh reality is that people are more wealth driven when measuring success. Wealth is also an accumulation of material goods that we acquire or in the case of us UBC students, it is also a measure on how easy our education is for us. There are some students who work 2/3 jobs and also balance their courses and others who have enough means to pay for their education without having any job. Our drive to obtain a post-secondary education is so that we can get secure jobs, that pay for the standard of living we as individuals desire to acquire.

Indeed, a solid synthesis makes itself available in terms of discussing "cultural goals" as Merton describes them: wealth accumulation is arguably a cultural goal in any state who conducts or who has been affected by imperialism, and who lives under capitalism, but it is absolutely worth taking into consideration (critically though, in many cases) how other goals exist either alongside, or against the cultural goal of attaining wealth. For example, being "happy" is arguably also a touted cultural goal in Canada, but it can either run contradictory to or right alongside the goal of accumulating wealth depending on what "happiness" is defined as. Happiness is arguably informed by having wealth for many or at least limits how much happiness an individual can gain access to.