Deviance on a Global scale

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.