Humans are largely defined by the circumstances they reside in.

This reminds me of an objection I once came up with about the idea that there's no reason to expect that your utility function for money should have an inflection point/some other special property at or near your current net worth. I think that's a not-so-unreasonable assumption indeed, if you are used to that level of wealth (i.e., unless you've recently gained or lost a huge lot of money): I think that someone who grew up in a wealthy family and stayed wealthy until recently would find it much harder to live on $1000 a month than someone who has been that poor all along, as the former would find it very hard to imagine life without [insert expensive pastime here], the latter would know more ways to cope with poverty (e.g. where to buy cheap clothes), etc.