Socrates isn't simply saying that wanting less makes you happier—that's the surface reading anyone might manage. Rather, he's making a radical claim about what wealth *actually is*: not an objective measure of possessions, but a mathematical relationship between what you have and what you desire. A person earning $50,000 who covets a yacht remains perpetually impoverished, while someone with $15,000 who needs nothing lives in genuine abundance. This matters because it means your financial anxiety isn't really about money; it's about the gap between your life and your imagined life, which you can shrink immediately without waiting for a promotion or inheritance.