Category: materialism

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A truly disposable society: disposable underwear

I knew we lived a disposable society the time Jacob and I broke a wine glass and he said, "it’s ok, we can buy another one."  That’s his answer to most problems: we can always buy a solution.  Makes you wonder what our society will be like when all our kids are adults.  They have grown up with cheap, replaceable things.  Things are not treasured and saved.  You use them, break them, lose them, buy new ones.  No big deal.

This had to top them all though: disposable underwear:

"Nundies are a one-time use, pantyless panty that adheres to the inside
inseam of a woman’s pants. Nundies are a great fashion solution product
for women who want to go bare-down-there without the discomfort of
itchy clothing. Nundies also save women from the embarrassment of tacky
panty lines and from having to wear uncomfortable thongs."

The really bad thing is that I immediately thought, "cool, I should check into those!"  (My suitcase would be lighter coming home …) 

How long until all our clothing is disposable like hospital gowns?

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Winning the lottery isn’t all it’s cut out to be

Why do we all play the lottery when it’s been proven that winning the lottery won’t make us any happier?  Lottery winners are no happier six months after they win the lottery than they were before they one.  Many of them are considerably unhappier.

I wrote a few days ago about how money isn’t evil.  The flip side is also true – money won’t solve all your problems.   I think we play the lottery because we don’t want to go to work everyday and we think we want a new car, maybe a new house and fancier vacations.  The real problem is that we don’t know what we want – we don’t know what would make us happy.  While money is certainly an enabler and I believe having money is a good thing, it won’t help you figure out the purpose of your life.  Money won’t help you figure out what makes you happy.  It won’t tell you how to spend your day. 

The key to happiness isn’t winning the lottery, it’s figuring out what makes you happy.  I guarantee that if you know what makes you happy, what you enjoy doing every day, you can find a way to do that and pay the bills.   But no matter how big the jackpot is, it won’t tell you what to do with the rest of your life.

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Money is not Evil

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Money is not evil.  Having money is not wrong.  Spending money is not wrong. 

Steve Olson has a great post about Why People Believe Money is the Root of all Evil – both Steve Olson and Steve Pavlina take that one step further and explain why if you think money is evil you will never have any.  Steve Olson’s post has a great list of things he grew up hearing that implied having money was bad.  Here’s the ones on his list that I also heard a lot:

  • He’s filthy rich
  • That house is a waste of space, can you imagine the heat bill
  • Whadda ya think money grows on trees
  • He’s got money to burn
  • How much money does a person need?

All of those are negative comments and imply that having money is evil, but money enables you to do things.  It’s very hard to save the world or even yourself if you don’t have any money. 

So, earn the money, make sure it doesn’t ruin you, use it wisely and accomplish your goals.  You can use money to find a cure for autism or to hang out on the beach for the rest of your life or make sure everybody in your town makes it to college.  Without money any of those will be hard to accomplish.  It’s even easier to stay in shape, eat healthy and live a longer life if you have money.   

Passing on having money won’t make you a better person, it will just give you one less tool to accomplish what you’d like to do in life.

Photo by Big-E-Mr-G.

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Generations and life goals

The other day Dad was trying to tell me that young people today don’t care as much about politics and social causes. I wasn’t sure whether I agreed or not but I did take umbrage at his example of a dad who drove a pinto and whose son drove an SUV.  Dad seemed to think that was a good example of how the child didn’t believe in social causes.  I didn’t get it.  How did having a nice car relate with not believing in social causes?

Well, this morning in the New York Times I read a stat that seemed to imply that young people are focusing on money at the expense of philosophy.  Who Americans Are and What They Do, in Census Data – New York Times:

In 1970, 79 percent said their goal was developing a meaningful philosophy of life. By 2005, 75 percent said their primary objective was to be financially very well off.

So there you go, Dad.  Your argument holds because the time invested to earn an SUV is replacing the time spent on social issues.  (Assuming people spend time on their primary goals!)