Are all three of these sentences equally fine?

Question

Are these all the same?

The more we earn, the less careful we become about money.

The more we earn, we become less careful about money.

The more we earn, the less careful we are about money.

I am confused about the sentence structures used here. I feel the first one makes sense though.
I hope someone can help me understand the rule behind this!

tchrist · Accepted Answer

In a comment, FumbleFingers wrote:

Your #2 is completely "non-idiomatic", but the other 2 aren't so hot either, even though at least they both include the the more ... the less juxtaposition. The problem is you've switched from a verb with "more" to an adjective with "less", which rather messes up the "parallelism". Better would be to have a verb on both sides of the "equation", as in The more we earn, the less we care about money.

LPH · Answer

There is really no rule except that the well established locution "the more … the less" is unchangeable and that all its parts must be preserved. Moreover the order of the elements in the construction is unique and can't be changed. According to this the first sentence and the third are correct.
Examples

The more we learn, the less difficult it becomes to learn.
The more we learn, it becomes the less difficult to learn.
The more knowledge, the less difficulty in acquiring knowledge.

Note: Don't make too much of that "earn/learn" coincidence; I noticed it only as I was through with this answer.

Are all three of these sentences equally fine?

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