In the article “Stuff Is Not Salvation,” by Anna Quindlen, she discusses American materialism and the desire to acquire a greater number of things than needed. Quindlen talks about how television commercials have made it possible to purchase unnecessary things. She discusses how American society over-spends and stuck with financial obligation by mass over consumption of products they do not use. She furthermore discusses how America society has fallen into so much financial obligation and that more and more individuals are becoming homeless and losing their employment. She argues that a person in America changes his or her telephone every sixteen months basically in light of the fact that it has gone out of the latest fashion. She then need the America society…
Today’s new materialism determines your placement on the social ladder. In almost every American organization, money and things are the whole foundation, so it makes sense that Americans would be so materialistic. Americans thrive…
Student paper (p. 3): The Awakening is about the story of a young wife who is awakened to her sexual needs that cannot be fulfilled within the confines of her conventional marriage (Clark, 2008). Nevertheless, Edna Pontellier is awakened to a yearning for freedom, a relation to and understanding of herself that she has not been aware of missing in the past. In the text, Edna identifies with the masculine interest of her father who the narrator remarks had managed or coerced his wife into her early grave. However, when Edna is awakened to the hidden potentialities she possesses, it is the yearning for freedom and the desire to overcome the limitations imposed on her from outside that determine her actions.…
In the essay “If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy, Then You Probably Aren’t Spending It Right”, Dunn, Gilbert, and Wilson explain why people often fail to make use of money even though it is a helpful tool to gain happiness and recommend eight useful ways to spend money that make people happy. Firstly, they claim that experiential purchases make people feel happier than material ones. In addition, experiences are more mentally revisited than things so they bring us happiness either when we use them or think about them. Secondly, people who spend money on others are shown to be happier than those people spending money on themselves. They point out that “the quality of our social…
“These people were so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works”(196). This quote, taken from the book Tuesdays With Morrie, reflects Morrie Schwartz’s attitude towards the “brainwashing” that takes place in the minds of the population. Morrie believes that the “brainwashing” affects the population negatively. According to Morrie, it strips a person of all perspective on life, leaving the illusion that material things are the only things of value. People with this warped perspective on life believe that obtaining material items can provide comfort and security, when in reality, it can’t.…
“The extreme emphasis upon the accumulation of wealth as a symbol of success in our society militates against the completely effective control of institutionally regulated modes of acquiring a fortune” (Merton). Have you ever looked around and noticed how much we emphasize money? Money controls so much of the American Dream that is causing a problem. Americans believe the amount of money you have is the end all be all in life and they are willing to do almost anything to gain it. The American Dream has deviated from the original meaning to mold to society today and the desire to constantly want more money. Money has been placed on a pedestal in the United States and because of this the American Dream has become…
November 28th, 2008. A man looks anxiously at the agitated crowd pressing harder and harder on the doors. The doors give way and the man holds up his hands as a final attempt to keep the crowd back. The front of the crowd pushes him aside but the rest of the crowd doesn’t know he’s there. The man’s fellow workers clamber and shove their way into the crowd to save him, but they too are trampled. The man dies of a broken neck, lung collapse, and head trauma. Two years later, people are bringing guns to toy stores in hopes of getting in line first, all to save 30% on items they don’t even need. The clearly defined reason behind this horrific event has become part of most Americans’ lives:the drive to acquire more stuff In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatz, a member of the lower class, exemplifies this intense desire for wealth and material goods. Although he only does this to impress the woman he loves, his story is a perfect way to summarize the birth of materialism. That driving force that causes Americans to want huge cars, huge houses, and tons of “stuff” to fill them with is the reason why so many Americans are in irreparable amounts of debt. Materialism, no longer restricted to a single class, is becoming the norm rather than the exception in America’s society today.…
New technology is constantly being released and of course everyone is all over it. These things are definitely not cheap, but people feel the need to be in possession of them in order to be accepted. "As often as not, it isn't the money itself that means anything; it is the use of money as the currency of the soul." This sentence is very real. It isn't the actual dollar bill that is important. What's important is what you can actually do with the money. If one won the lottery, one wouldn't say "oh, I got a lot of bills, I'm going to keep them forever and not spend them." No. One will most likely say, "I'm going to buy a new mansion and 3 cars, and part of the city." So in reality it isn't the money that people want, it is in fact what the money can do that appeals to…
Money and gems can not buy happiness, but only comfort. For example Prof. Howell says, “And yet we still keep on buying material things,” He says ,“Because they’re tangible and we think we can keep on using them.”(Prof. Howell 2008). This tells us that people will buy jewelry and furniture because they’re tangible and will last a while. This also proves that people will buy material goods because they think it will last longer than a cruise or a flight to Hawaii. Dr. Dean says “People's’ desires for material possessions at the same, or greater rate, than their salaries… this means that despite considerably have more luxurious possessions, people end up no happier.”(Dr. Dean 2008) This…
For the most part, I believe that Americans are a little too needy when it comes to material items. In the political cartoon by Jim Sizemore, there is a man and a woman laying in a bed together surrounded by a bunch of clock, pictures and other miscellaneous items with the phrase “Something is missing,” written at the bottom of the picture. This cartoon shows that people can have all that they want, but they will still want more afterwards. When talking about the “American Dream,” mentioning how “ninety-three percent of teenage girls list shopping as their favorite pastime,” is a must (Source E). With all of the “pastime” that teenage girls can have, it is a wonder how they are able to stand shopping at this point.…
America is ruled by capitalism, therefore making us a society of consumerism. Affluence is essentially the "American Dream" people are constantly striving for this unlimited wealth or comfortable lifestyle when in reality it doesn't exist. There will always be pressure to "keep up with the Jones" in order to achieve this idea of happiness. This concept is not something new Americans have been under this pressure since the 1950s. It's just increased due to the amount of advertisement being pumped out by the media. If the focus of affluence shifted to value things money can't buy like: good health, healthy relationships, and peace of mind. People would strive for that. I have noticed a trend of minimalism is becoming very popular. I think slowly…
Americans are too concerned with material goods. Some Americans are too concerned with the latest trends like electronics, clothes, and jewelry. All they want to do is buy things to get noticed. Americans think material goods make them who they are today. Famous people want to get noticed and they think if they buy the biggest house or have the latest trend people are going to accept them. People don’t except you for what kind of car you drive, or how big your house is, or how well you dress. People should like you for your personality but Americans don’t see it that way. Americans want the latest things to stand out but there are other ways to stand out. Some Americans worry about themselves more than others. Americans are too concerned with electronics, clothes, and jewelry; there are way more important things in life. One big thing that Americans are strung over is electronics because they want to get the latest thing.…
According to I Timothy 6:10, “Greed of money is the root all evil.” Money cannot buy love or friends. Love and friends require time, and while, if you think on the bright side, perhaps money can buy friends and love, those will not be genuine and will instead befriend you or love you just because of your money. I think the most important thing in life is love because even though you have lots of money but you don’t have someone to share it with it would be meaningless. So many people now almost live for money. Life is quite ironic now, when people are young they spend their health chasing money and when they’re old they spend their money chasing their health. They have treated money as a god, money now resembles power, and due to money lots of people lost their loves, they substituted money for their family and friends. They do not value relationships. I can sum up all of these; money is a one way trip to hell.…
Anna Quindlen, a novelist, social critic, and journalist wrote an intriguing essay “Stuff is Not Salvation” about the addiction of Americans, who splurge on materialistic items that have no real meaning. The ability to obtain credit is one of the main reasons to blame for society’s consumption epidemic. However, Quindlen feels the economic decline due to credit card debt is insignificant compared to the underlying issues of American’s binging problems. Quindlen’s essay gives excellent points regarding the differences in America’s typical shopping habits. Additionally, she mentions how people acquire all this “stuff” but seem to never realize, “why did I get this?”(501). Quindlen makes her audience visualize a world where we acquire our needs versus our meaningless desires. Yet, she fails to mention people who could live a life of happiness through the possessions they acquire.…
As inhabitants of this 21st century Western world, we all have to deal with money. We participate in the world of commerce as a means to obtain those things considered necessities of life. Money plays the role of the most commonly accepted means in this giving and getting from others. And the more money one has, the greater one’s power to regulate the particulars of survival – one’s own and that of others. We use money to participate in the exchange of products or services, individually and corporately – whether employed by or leading an organization. In some cases these organizations are publicly funded non-profits, and in other cases they are private, for-profit ventures. Money and morality is a topic that has surfaced on many occasions in my line of work. One such instance was during a contract with CBC TV to work on the development of a six-part national series titled: “Beautiful, Filthy Money and the Search for Soul.” The title itself speaks to the ambivalent nature of our responses to money and its presence in our lives. As part of the contract, I appeared as a guest on the panel, where I was asked to complete the following sentence: “Money is…” Yes, what is money? My response was: Money is a tool for finding out who we really are. What you do with money, and how you live with money’s presence in your life, tells a lot about your values. Or, as Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it: “A dollar is not value, but representative of value, and, at last, of moral values.” This is apparently pretty close to what Buddhists believe about money. There are times when many of us are faced with an imbalance between money and morality and find ourselves asking in some form or another: How we can put “Money” and “Morality” in the same sentence and not end up with an ethical contradiction? The incompatibility of these Mwords is an inherent, yet…