Gladwell proposes that wealth can have diminishing returns. Though he recognizes that people need a certain amount of money to set themselves up to be successful parents, he also suggests that too much money can have adverse effects. At first glance, this might seem counterintuitive—if earning a certain amount of money makes parenting easier, shouldn’t earning more money make it even
easier? However, the central thesis of
David and Goliath is that advantages aren’t always what they seem. In the same way that Goliath’s strength isn’t always beneficial, then, money ceases to be helpful once people reach a certain level of wealth.