Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn't have it and thought of other things if you did.

Scarcity Makes Everything Urgent

There's something unexpectedly liberating in this comparison. Most of us grow up absorbing the message that money is serious and sex is scandalous, so we don't think to put them in the same sentence. But Baldwin is pointing at something real: both become obsessive exactly when they're scarce. When you're broke, money invades every decision—what you eat, where you live, whether you can see a doctor. It's not greed; it's desperation. The same way that genuine scarcity creates constant hunger, whether physical or emotional. The moment either one becomes secure enough, your mind actually frees up to think about other things. Art, meaning, relationships, curiosity—the stuff that actually makes life interesting.

The twist is that this explains why so much money advice fails. We tell broke people to "think bigger" or "focus on their purpose," but that's almost cruel. Your brain is correctly identifying the actual emergency. Security isn't shallow or materialistic; it's the foundation that lets you become the person you want to be. Baldwin isn't saying money doesn't matter. He's saying that once your basic survival is handled, it matters less, and that's when real living can begin.