Becca... I agree with a lot of what you were saying. And like I said, it wasn't to make people wrong with what I was saying, it was just random thoughts. That was all. But then I have moments... like with the way my dh is. Well, I watch him (a successful, extremely tallented (in two careers now) man) get sucked in by the consumerism and I no longer think that it is just a frusteration on my part... I actually start thinking it is wrong. It feels wrong... it hurts people.
Right now I am reading "The Omnivore's Delima"... basically the book talks about how we are a young mixed culture country are not bound by rules of culture that have been proven over many many years, and so therefore we are completely obsessed with being healthy and the least healthy developed country pretty much on the planet.
I think that same thing applies to consumerism. We haven't had long enough to develop rigorous moral codes (or cutulral codes, which don't have to be moral perse') that dictate what we buy, how we buy it, and when we should get it. We are "free" and so therefore we can do whatever we want, which includes nearly killing ourselves to pay for debt, and eat things that slowly distroy our insides without a second thought as to why, because as a culture, less than a hundred years into our becoming a country, the industrialized world had taken over, and as they say in Sea Buisket: "that was the end and the begining of imagination, all at the same time". So basically, our cultural codes are written on the "if you want it, you SHOULD have it" ...even if it isn't good for you or you don't have the money.
This may all be inane babble... and that is totally ok with me, it was just where my head was... and in the true spirit of being dramatic, I thought I would put it out there for others to see and critique.
Mostly though, I don't buy things becuase they are a good deal. If I wasn't going to spend money in the first place, it doesn't save me money to get something on a killer deal. It just doesn't. I don't clip coupons, I don't save box tops, I don't worry about whether or not something will be cheaper next week... unless I was already planning on buying it
before I saw that it was on sale.
Val