What If Money Can Buy ...

[reetpleat]

Indeed,, people in impovrished countries often are quite happy. one reason is that a higher standard of living often leads to more isolation from friends, family, and community. Single family living etc.

However, poverty can bring much stress, misery, hunger, deprivation, and ill health, all of which makes it harder to keep a positive attitude.

I think the worst is to live in a wealthy country and be impovrished. If everyone around you is poor, then you don't notice it so bad andeveryone tends to pull together.

Still, I would rather be rich and trying to be hapy, than poor and trying too be happy. i don't think poverty is a magical formular for hapiness. there are plenty of poor miserable people and happy rich people.

People with poverty mindsets, often think that being rich or having money will make them bad, or unhappy, or selfish. And think that not having money makes tyhem sp[iritually pure, or happy somehow. i don't agree with this at all. This is the attitudes that keep people form being successful and prosperous.

 

[DutchIndo]

I see all these celebrities who had or have problems and can't help thinking of Matt 16:26. I apologize if I trod on dangerous grounds here. It's just my take on money and power.

 

[Paisley]

Still, all of these things [that can be bought with money] can't guarantee you health. Just saying.

Nobody here has said that they could.

 

[Gilbey]

So just when is it considered in EXCESS when acquiring material possessions? When you have more than 2 cars in the garage? When you have more than 3 televisions? 3 computers? Fine paintings costing thousands of $$? I could go on and on.

I have this interesting DVD called "Escape From Affluenza"

Escape from Affluenza is a one-hour PBS special providing practical solutions to the problem of “affluenza” — an epidemic of stress, waste, overconsumption and environmental decay. Escape from Affluenza shows how some Americans are calling a halt to keeping up with the Joneses and abandoning the consumer chase. The program is a sequel to the popular special, Affluenza which premiered on PBS in September, 1997.

You might want to check them out.

 

[davestlouis]

I suspect that the iffy economy is FORCING many people to reassess their priorities and get away from conspicuous consumption. There is a big difference between having oodles of money, and having lots of debt because you have bought luxury items, or leased luxury items.

I worked in a luxury auto dealership for several years. There was a huge divide between folks who paid cash for multiple Escalades at a time because Escalades are appliances for them, and the folks who leased one in an effort to show off.

I saw lots of bored, idle-rich folks at that dealership who didn't seem particularly happy, but at least they knew their physical needs were being met. They didn't need to worry about the repo man taking the car, or getting foreclosed-on.

 

[davestlouis]

gilbey, I think one could argue that most Americans over-consume...we allegedly have the "richest poor people in the world". Think about this...I was a kid in the 70s, and lived in what was then considered a nice, upper middle class home. We had 2 phones, one in the kitchen and one in my parents' bedroom. We had one TV set, no VCR, no microwave. We had an acre lot, but no tractor or riding mower...I pushed a 21 inch Toro...that's what kids were for. I was the garage door opener...when my folks got home, they would honk, and one of us had damn well better RUN and open the garage door. Just think about how our consumption has changed since then, just with electronics...laptops, cell phones, microwaves, ipods, the list goes on and on. Are our lives any better for all the additional stuff we have? I doubt it. If I rolled up in the driveway and honked my horn, nobody would hear me because they are each engrossed in their own little world of computer games and cell phones and who knows what else.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

GUTS.

So many people go around (I too am guilty quite often) with the idea in mind that if they only had XYZ amount of money they'd begin living their lives and acting like the person they wish they could be. They do this instead of beginning the type of thinking, speaking, behaving and doing which will, if practiced courageously, attract the very prosperity which eludes them.

 

[Gilbey]

gilbey, I think one could argue that most Americans over-consume...we allegedly have the "richest poor people in the world". Think about this...I was a kid in the 70s, and lived in what was then considered a nice, upper middle class home. We had 2 phones, one in the kitchen and one in my parents' bedroom. We had one TV set, no VCR, no microwave. We had an acre lot, but no tractor or riding mower...I pushed a 21 inch Toro...that's what kids were for. I was the garage door opener...when my folks got home, they would honk, and one of us had damn well better RUN and open the garage door. Just think about how our consumption has changed since then, just with electronics...laptops, cell phones, microwaves, ipods, the list goes on and on. Are our lives any better for all the additional stuff we have? I doubt it. If I rolled up in the driveway and honked my horn, nobody would hear me because they are each engrossed in their own little world of computer games and cell phones and who knows what else.

I too grew up (in the 60's) with humble beginnings on a farm where we had to use a generator for electricity. Believe me, that was a luxury! We only used it when really necessary. We had running water of course, but that too has to be filled up (manually by pump!) since we were independent from city utilities and had our own private tower water tank. Soon Dad incorporated a windmill to take the place of the laborious manual pump. Whew, that helped a lot! We had one console (Black & White) TV filled with vacuum tubes. I remember the waiting time before it fully turned on because the tubes needed to warm up! We had the old phone to reach an operator via a rotary ringer that you do manually. For Hi-Fi, all we had was a record player. And then there was only one Willy's Jeep in the garage.

A very simple life compared to what my kids are now having, and we were just quite content.

 

[davestlouis]

I had forgotten all about our stereo system...big piece of furniture with a radio and turntable inside, with 2 built in speakers. When the turntable broke, my dad gutted the thing and made a china cabinet out of it, put shelves and whatnot inside. I seem to recall that he left the speakers where they were.

We always had 2 cars, but my mom always got the new one, my dad got the hand-me-down. They always paid cash too, no car loans, no way.

 

[Paisley]

So just when is it considered in EXCESS when acquiring material possessions? When you have more than 2 cars in the garage? When you have more than 3 televisions? 3 computers? Fine paintings costing thousands of $$? I could go on and on.

One measure of overconsumption is whether you can really afford your lifestyle. If you have to borrow for something besides a house or car, if your bills don't allow you to save for retirement, if you don't have enough cash reserves to live on for a few months, you might be overconsuming.

A measure for a mortgage is the ratio of principal vs. income. Ideally, a mortgage should be no more than 2 to 2.5 times your annual income. Before the nationwide mortgage debacle, the mobile home industry its own default crisis. One exception was a mobile home builder called Clayton Homes, which verified information on applications and didn't allow a large ratio of principal to income.

Another measure is to look at your motives. Do you really like or need the thing you want to get, or is it to be like your friends, or is it to inspire envy?

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Spot on, Paisley.

I can't remember who gets the credit for this quote:
"Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you have."

 

[TessTrueheart]

Nobody here has said that they could.

I didn't say anybody did.

 

[LizzieMaine]

So just when is it considered in EXCESS when acquiring material possessions?

If you find yourself wondering, "Gee, maybe I've got more stuff than I really need," then it's a pretty good chance that you do.

 

[Gilbey]

If you find yourself wondering, "Gee, maybe I've got more stuff than I really need," then it's a pretty good chance that you do.

If I compared my stuff to the stuff of a family in a 3rd world country whose lives are met only by basic necessities for survival, then I am surely guilty of overconsumption.

 

[Foofoogal]

People with poverty mindsets, often think that being rich or having money will make them bad, or unhappy, or selfish. And think that not having money makes tyhem sp[iritually pure, or happy somehow. i don't agree with this at all. This is the attitudes that keep people form being successful and prosperous.

poverty mindsets and enabling mindsets have got to be the deadliest to any remote reality of monetary or spiritual wealth. Like shooting holes in your bucket every single moment of every single day and in others buckets along the way.
---------
money will never make anyone happy.

 

[Undertow]

If I had a pile of money, I'd pay off my family's homes and get myself a place; something old.

Otherwise, if food, clothing and shelter are taken care of, I'd start programs for the homeless. It's always been a dream of mine.

 

[John in Covina]

For those that might like to get some fairly wild ideas about money and "The Meaning of Money" the An Rand Institue has a snippet from Atlas Shrugged on their website:
http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7429

 

[DesertDan]

Undertow - I implore you to use your extraordinary powers of necromancy for good and not evil.

 

[Undertow]

Undertow - I implore you to use your extraordinary powers of necromancy for good and not evil.

Haha! What do you mean? (and how did you know?!)

 

[sheeplady]

This thread was interesting. Regarding the health bit, I read a study that measured the happiness of people who could walk and those that were paralyzed from the waist down. There was a huge drop in self-reported happiness for those who were paralyzed immediately following the event that caused it. However, six months following the event that resulted in paralysis, the group that had been disabled was just as happy as the group that had full use of their legs.

I think that says a lot about happiness and the human spirit. Being healthy doesn't mean being happy and conversely, being unhealthy doesn't mean being unhappy.