Living in China as a European it's hard not to notice the openness and "unfiltered" love for money. For many occassions giving a bag of money is the appropriate gift, and how much your salary is is common dinner talk. In a way this makes sense because money is so important to all. So how come many or most Western countries buy gifts rather than money and feel its inappropriate to share salaries and how much things cost? Why is false modesty about riches so common?
I think this may be a question more suited to /r/AskSocialScience or /r/AskAnthropology
This thread is trending high right now and getting a lot of attention, but it is important to remember those upvotes represent interest in the question itself, and it can often take time for a good answer to be written. The mission of /r/AskHistorians is to provide users with in-depth and comprehensive responses, and our rules are intended to facilitate that purpose. We remove comments which don't follow them for reasons including unfounded speculation, shallowness, and of course, inaccuracy. Making comments asking about the removed comments simply compounds this issue. So please, before you try your hand at posting, check out the rules, as we don't want to have to warn you further.
Please also note that this is a question about how a particular cultural attitude toward money arose in the West. Responses which speculate on the mentality of individuals who hold it today or give your own views about money are not appropriate.
Finally, while we always appreciate feedback, it is unfair to the OP to further derail this thread with META conversation, so if anyone has further questions or concerns, I would ask that they be directed to modmail, or a META thread. Thank you!