Sith Happens? Part II

The root of all evil? A survey was once conducted by several sociologists where they questioned different Americans and asked them how much money they thought they would need in order to achieve the ‘American Dream’. More or less, each of these people stated figures which were pretty much double of what they were currently earning. Think about that. So where does it end? At what point in time do you say ‘I have got enough. I can now live comfortably, spend time with my family, or pursue the hobby I always wanted to do’?

Are we always going to be striving to earn more? What happens when you have a million dollars? You move up in class, start rubbing shoulders with people of the same class. You have to have that expensive house, the top-of-the line car, those expensive holidays. This means you have to earn even more. As you earn more, your toys just become more expensive; your friends become snobbier, you have to keep a constant image up.

So at what point do you have what all of us penniless people here dream about? There is always something more to have, always more money to be made. I guess we all remember the words of our iconic hero, St. John Lennon; ‘Money can’t buy me love’. True, but neither can poverty. I guess my point is that we need money, or quite frankly, we need to provide a means to live. But at what point does it cease to become earning simply to exist, and becomes earning simply to have. If we really thought about it, what is it that we are so desperate to have? It depends on the society and age you live in. Right now I’m dreaming of a red hot Ferrari. (Not that I know how to drive, but I think I’d look terribly good standing next to it; holding the keys). Put me back two to three hundred years. I’d be dreaming of a fine white stallion. (Again, to stand next to, horses are really uncomfortable to ride). Or maybe if I was a POW, my great desire would be for a hot shower or a nice meal.

Do you get what I’m trying to say? Let me put it in better terms; cell-phones. Ten years ago, the phones had one simple feature; they could make phone calls. And yet there were the better models. Somehow there is always the better model. Maybe it was slimmer, or smaller, or looked cooler. At either rate, the phone that all the big important people had, or everyone else craved; is now worth next to nothing. If someone were caught walking with one of those phones now they would be laughed at till infinity. What is the difference between a big-shot ten years ago, and well, me? (I am used to the mocking laughter by now). Ten years ago, I would be envied. Nowadays, I get all the elbow room I want on the subway as soon as I pull out old faithful.

Alright, it’s all well and good to point at the rich people and say ‘they are so unhappy’, when we all know we want to be ‘unhappy’. It’s easy to talk about how charitable you are until there is a stack of greenbacks in your face, and, oh; don’t you just love the smell? It’s so easy to say how we are all just being influenced by the media as to what to buy, and what looks cool; but at the same time we will buy that phone when we can afford it, we will buy that car, we will accept that job; because all of us are too scared to try and imagine what life would be like where you were the word on what is cool; where you said what was ‘in’, where you bought what you wanted because you needed it to enhance your life. But all we can do is dream; and write about it in a blog no one reads...

Enough Said.