Nowadays, we are too Materialistic

I lot of my posts start up like this: But some friends of mine were talking about a book she is currently reading: The meaning of Wife. In that book, it mentioned that the diamond companies started the thinking of "love=size of the diamond" and "the engagement ring should cost about two paychecks. That, to us, is some bull. From there, we started talking about how important people think "stuff" is. We are trying to figure out if people really want the things they buy, or do they just want to keep up, pass and completely run over the Jones'.

To me its terrible. There are people digging them selves further and further into debt, trying to buy that big house on the hill, the most expensive and biggest truck on the lot (complete with shiny spinning rims, I might add), the brand name clothes, etc. Then at the end of the day, they can't enjoy it. Either because they are working themselves to death in overtime or the bill collectors are calling them every two minutes.

I mean, whats going on with us? My friend said she remembers reading an article about Mother Teresa. When she visited America sometime in the 1980's she said that we were soulless. Pretty much, we cared about our money and what our money can buy than each other. (I don't know if that's true or not, though)

But if you think about it. I can't blame anyone for thinking like we do. The media is always telling us that we need this and that. Our cars are big enough, our house isn't roomy enough...and heck..we aren't pretty/handsome enough. MTV shows are the music stars, talking about their girls/cars/house/money, etc. So people want to be like them. VH1 shows us how good the stars live. Friends and similar shows make it look like easy to live in a great apartment.

A few months back there was newspaper article on something similar. A 15 year old boy received a $200 birthday gift. What was the first thing he did. Not deposit a portion of it into a savings account, but spend it all on a pair of Prada pants. I know if it was my grandmother, she would have made me save at least 10% of it.

I'm not ranting because I'm bitter and broke. In fact, I'm living comfortable. I spend money like everyone else and I, too, have my own bit of debt. But I can honestly say that I didn't get there trying to please anyone else but myself. I save as much as I can and I'm really thinking about my future and I'm trying to get my younger cousins to do the same.

Ok, sorry for the long post. Just had to rant a bit.