Arthur and Molly were undoubtedly poor, yet they had never considered changing that. In the future, after Arthur won the Daily Prophet's prize money, he made almost no long-term plans. After paying the fine and buying new school supplies for his sons and daughter, he spent all the remaining money on a family trip to Egypt to visit Bill.
Why could he remain so composed?
Because in the current wizarding world, aside from sending their children to school, wizards had almost nothing they needed to spend money on.
Food and clothing could be handled with magic, making complete self-sufficiency possible. Crops could even harvest themselves, so there was no need to do farm work at all.
As for entertainment, there were only newspapers, at five Knuts a copy—extremely cheap.
In Harry's first year, eleven Sickles bought him an entire cartful of sweets.
Even if one splurged on a drink at a pub, a large mug of Butterbeer cost only two Sickles.
Those were the few ways to spend money in the wizarding world. For individual wizards, such a pressure-free life was indeed blissful, but when viewed on a larger scale, no pressure meant no motivation.
And a civilization without motivation was not far from destruction!
Muggles did much better in that regard. Capitalists did everything they could to squeeze out every last bit of surplus value from people. Food, clothing, housing, transportation, and entertainment turned life into a tightrope walk—one careless step, and you would plunge into the abyss. It was full of thrills.
Moreover, as Muggle technology developed, this situation would only intensify in the future. The birth of all kinds of consumer electronics would push human desires toward extreme hedonism.
Without question, it was a society beginning to become distorted, but it was also a society undergoing tremendous