Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Don’t you deserve it?

I was driving to the park and ride this morning…the first leg of my morning commute….listening to the radio when a commercial came on. It was for some luxury real estate company that would sell your luxury home and get you more money because “after all, don’t you deserve it?”

I did not count the number of times the phrases “You deserve it” and “Don’t you deserve it?” were used in the commercial, but it was a lot. For the last few hours, that phrase has been floating in my head. Don’t you deserve it?”

And I started thinking about that mentality. “Don’t you deserve it?”

Isn’t that what advertising tries to make us feel? That we DESERVE anything…. or everything… that we want.  Advertisers want us to feel “Yes….I DO deserve it!”  Then we will buy their product or service, whether we really need it or not.  And if we can’t afford it we are depriving ourselves, our spouse, our kids, our pets. We are deprived because we can’t have everything! This causes many people to go into debt. (I know this is not the only reason for debt, but this is the one I am talking about.)

I see it in my kids sometimes though not always. Oh, I don’t think they are in debt, but I don’t know…it’s not my business. But I do know that at times they have purchased things they wanted then had to be bailed out. And yes, we have done it, but not often. And I guess they have all matured…or got better paying jobs…as we don’t hear of them having financial difficulties, though I still think they spend a lot of their money frivolously. I see the same thing in a lot of people I work with. They can’t afford a co-pay to go to the doctor, but they buy the new iPhone every time one comes out. (Not that there is a thing wrong with buying an iPhone...IF you can afford it.)

So, why don’t I feel deprived? I have not bought everything I ever wanted. I got a lot of what I wanted, but for me material items just don’t seem that important. I don’t think they ever have.  I think I deserve to be happy, but I don’t think any THING is going to do that for me.

I guess I need to thank my parents for that. 

3 comments:

Sonya Ann said...

And that's the problem with so much in this country. I sound like an old person. The tv pumps in all the "needs" when your heart and checkbook would be a lot more nourished if a need was a kind word or deed.

McVal said...

I know what you mean. If anything, I think LESS things would make me happy...

slugmama said...

All you can do as a parent is teach them the right way to handle money and then hope and pray those lessons take before they screw up their finances too badly.
Our culture is just plain EVIL these days.....greed pushes businesses to do what is not in the best interests of their customers.