Excessive American Materialism

Well, I haven't had to deal with insomnia in my last two pregnancies, but I have heard from many other moms who have. A couple of weeks ago, I probably had 3-4 nights when I was up anywhere from bedtime until 4-6:30 in the morning. I can't imagine having that AND having to go to a "real job" the next day!

Anyway, on one of these nights, I flipped to HGTV (yes, Heath will make fun of me). It was a show about one couple moving from the Chicago suburb of Naperville to a suburb of Indianapolis where "housing is cheaper". They were an engaged couple with one dog and two cats. I missed the very beginning when they may have shared their careers, but I am guessing they were pretty well-paying as you will see from their housing budget. This was not their starter house, but keep in mind that they didn't have any children yet. So, what were they looking for?

They saw three properties, in the price range of $820,000 to $900,000. That's right, almost a million dollar homes. The one at the highest end had 5 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms (what do you do with 5.5 bathrooms and no children??) and was approximately 6,600 square feet. For those of you who have visited our home, that is about 5 times the size of our house. I would get lost in there!!! It was admittedly a gorgeous home, complete with a mini-wine cellar and a "hearth room" (which is apparently the latest "rage" in homes though I know nothing about them) next to the kitchen. The prospective buyers were concerned b/c it had a gigantic yard, but would need to be fenced for the animals and landscaping would need to be done, both adding to the overall purchase price for the home. However, in the end, that is the house they chose.

If someone else were awake with me at 1 a.m., they would have seen me with my jaw open the entire episode! I simply can't fathom what you do with a house that large, that expensive for two people and 3 relatively small animals, unless you are opening a shelter or orphanage of some sort. Now, maybe they plan on having 15 children and getting full use of their space. However, given their older-seeming age and the current mentality of our American culture towards large families, I would say that is unlikely. Who knows . . . maybe they will strive to be like the Duggars, or perhaps they will fill their house with the American average of 2.1 children (they
already have the pets). You can check out www.duggarfamily.com if you are unfamiliar with the reference.

Overall, this episode got me thinking about the larger issue in general, which is the extreme and excessive amounts of material goods that Americans possess (even if we can't afford them). It is almost as if you are not American if you are not striving for MORE house, MORE cars, MORE stuff, MORE, MORE, MORE! We fill our homes with "stuff" and cut out time with people. We buy items to keep up appearances or lift our moods or create further "needs" for more stuff (e.g. when you have lots of clutter, you then need to purchase items to organize the clutter . . . I am amazed at the advancement of some of our current organizational systems. The Container Store, anyone?). Our materialistic drives cost us in terms of sanity, simplicity, relationship and as we are now seeing in our country, economic security.

Now, I am not saying every single homebuyer who defaulted on their loan should not have bought a home, but why is our economy in this mess? I think it is partly due to our overspending with money we simply do not have. We put it on plastic and think/hope we can pay it back. We spend what we have before it is in our pockets. Most of us are not living on any kind of pre-planned budget, which contributes to our lack of knowledge over how much money we really do have as a family and how much we can comfortably spend. We also, like any good American ideal, take it to the extreme.

I also say shame on the mortgage lenders who approved families for home loans with the full knowledge that it would be too much of a burden on them to pay it back. I know when Heath and I bought our condo in Country Club Hills (which had neither a country club nor many hills), we were approved for far more than we could actually afford. I am glad we had the commonsense to see that and stick within a lower price range instead of assuming we could afford something $20,000 higher.

A couple of closing thoughts to this somewhat disjointed post . . . why are we buying so much stuff? What voids are we trying to fill? Why are we buying homes that are 5 times the size we might actually need in defense of fulfilling the "American dream"? Why are most of those homes sitting empty of people but full of pretty knick-knacks? When did it become more important to have a huge home than to contribute to society in worthwhile ways?

Don't get me wrong, I am not completely innocent either. I dream of the high-end minivan models, sleek and fast . . . well, okay, maybe just sleek. Heck, I'd settle for clean. I am sure I own far more stuff than I actually NEED. And each and every room in my home is currently slated for a "de-cluttering". Yes, I am a culprit to this mentality too. But I am honestly striving to break away from it. I am trying to find contentment and gratitude in all the amazing things we have been blessed with instead of those we do not currently have. I am attempting to find peace in the regular swing in our checking account, when Heath's checks are deposited and then the mortgage/bills/student loans are paid. I am trying to pare down and let go, to detach from all these earthly goods that won't mean a thing when I have passed. After all, Jesus had nowhere to lay his head as an adult. We are in a nice, comfy King-size bed, sheltered from the elements of nature. And I usually have two little sets of hands/feet poking and pushing me at some point in the night. What could be better than that?! Move over Container Store, there's nothing you have that can contain us!