Mo' money, mo' problems... or is it more nookie? A survey conducted by Hannah Grove, a business consultant, which I found in an article by Thomas Kostigan, looked at high net worth individuals (average net worth of $89 million) and surprisingly found that being rich and having better sex seems to be more true for women than for men.
According to the survey,"Some 84% of rich women and 63% of rich men say having money means having better sex."There were two other points Mr. Kostigan discussed, which were even more interesting. The first related to a recent book, "The Monogamy Myth," which said that 60% of men and 40% of women have extramarital affairs. Grove's survey found that rich men had affairs at a similar incidence (53%), but rich women had affairs at almost twice the general population's rate (73%). Why? Hard to tell. Is money empowering women or do you have to posess an unconventional, out-of-the-box approach to life in order to become a wealthy woman? The survey doesn't address that question.
The second point of interest is what defines "better sex." The men surveyed equated "better" with a greater number of partners, including the holy grail of male sexual fantasy, the "threesome." Basically, being rich allowed them to swipe their platinum (or titanium) American Express cards between women's thighs and...PRESTO..they open.
For women it was the opposite, "better" meant a higher quality of sex with fewer partners. It makes me wonder if confidence in one's sexual self is the main determinant for the level of sexual quality and money is simply a quantitative way to reaffirm one's confidence.
The survey piqued my interest, but it did not not actually determine whether wealth causes better sex. Ms. Grove is a consultant interested in helping companies target high net worth individuals; she is not a scientist. As such, she doesn't need to determine whether wealth causes better sex, only that the two are associated, so such knowledge can be used for targeted marketing toward rich people.
I tried to access the actual survey on Ms. Grove's site, but couldn't. I think a copy is being emailed to me, along with (I'm certain) a lifetime subscription to more spam. I'd like to know how many poor, middle-class, and upper-class-but-not-super-wealthy people were surveyed to determine that the wealthy have better sex. Were the wealthy just expected to think back to what sex was like before they became rich and make a comparison? What if they were born into wealth?
Anyway, I'm not going to get too distraught. I can see money and sex as associated, but not necessarily causally linked. I continue to believe that "better sex" (both quantity and quality) has more to do with one's confidence in and comfort with one's self, rather than the size of one's bank roll. Having money may help, but in the end confidence is sexy...and free.
Just to be safe, though, I'm gonna keep working...hard.
-SWL
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