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Nov. 21, 2006 I just went to eBay and I didn't like what I saw. Hundreds, if not thousands, of bids for a gaming system that just hit the market. And the price is huge, sometimes as much as three times or more the retail price of $600. So one thing comes to mind: Have some of us given up on sanity? I mean, what is the point of spending a huge amount of money on a video game system? To beat the rush? To have bragging rights on Monday? I mean, who cares? Obviously some people's priorities are in being accepted by their children, accepted by their peers and has nothing to do with patience and common sense. The worst part of this recent introduction of the PlayStation 3, XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii is that Americans have forgotten that having toys is not what life is all about. spending big money on having these things do not help anyone or do good for the betterment of society. In fact it has the exact opposite effect. I think back to a time, long before you or I were thoughts in someone's mind, when people, those of us in the general population, where we made do with what we had and saved for the things we wanted. Now it is as if we forgot about this and shouted from the hills "Gimme, gimme, gimme! Now, now, now!" But what do you actually have when it is all said and done? Look at the things you own. Sure, they are shiny and state-of-the-art and you can brag about it, but how do you feel about them? Do they make you a better person? Are you taller, thinner, healthier, smarter or better looking? Some people think it actually matters, I used to be like that. I'm not innocent. But try asking someone else who just doesn't care about material possessions. They would rather experience the world outside their door or make do with what they have. When things wear out, and that can take a long time for most things. Things are mostly made better than a century ago. And no wonder the average American family is $8,000 in credit card debt. Sure, there are emergency situations but let's be real. We spend way too much outside of what we can afford because we can't accept being judged on our merits. So what do we do? All of us are consumers in one way or another. We can't stop buying groceries or transiting through our cities. Most of us don't know better. It has become our nature, as sad as that is to say. Sure, we could all just move to the hills and live off the land but that is absurd. Maybe we could just ween ourselves off the teet that is the need to be massive consumers. The practice of paring down our unnecessary purchases could actually change our society and force change. Look at what happened to the music industry with the introduction of Napster and iTunes. It forced the record industry to rethink the idea of packaging a hit song with 11 other crappy songs. With plummeting sales, they had to rethink what they were doing. And yet over a billion songs have been sold on Apple's little venture into music. My fellow Americans, there is hope that doesn't come at a price. In fact, I will guarantee that you will have more money and less debt if you just stop buying so much unnecessary junk. You will have more money, more free time and less stress. You will regrow some hair, lose weight and learn to empower yourself and grow as a person. Peace. ------------ About the author: Nicholas Olson is an aspiring playwright and former journalist. He spent parts of his high school, college and professional life as a journalist, serving as a military journalist from 2000-06. Mr. Olson is an avid writer and enjoys political opinion. His views are not that of any particular party or of the country he once served: They are his own. Email: nicholasjolson@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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