A reader from the Great State writes from inside the mortgage industry:
Read your book. I have felt much the same way for a long time. It must be a southern thing and a peculiar Louisiana thing , I grew up in New Orleans and then Covington. I have felt for a long time that this over emphasis on consumerism in this society is tearing us apart inside. I see it in my business which is the mortgage industry. People want the bigger house, and so builders oblige them and lenders find new ways to get them in. We build, build, build ostensibly creating new “neighborhoods” that are anything but. The people buy these houses in these “neighborhoods” and they cannot afford them but they feel as though they “need” this big new house. Then they wake up one morning feeling utterly miserable because it is this thing, this house that makes them miserable and is the monkey on their back. It is the new luxury car that they just had to have for status that is eating away at them because they cannot afford that either.I find it is this constant focus on getting things and the need for status that really tears us apart and destroys community because it is so much about the self. It is the self centeredness that hurts us. I think you are on to something. I realized it back in 2002 when I was listening to some evangelicals rip on Catholicism. What I had always noticed about many of the non denominational evangelicals was that they always wanted what they wanted and did not want to be tied down by too much dogma or too much thinking or any real restraint. “God has forgiven me!!!! I am saved.” seemed to be their thing. Yet I found that most of these folks were not immune to the pressures of THIS world and very often were avid participants in it. It moved me to rediscover my own Catholic roots and understand the real role of God in my life and how I approach my experience and relationship with God. I found that at least for me it was back home in the Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox church but, all things equal I prefer the Catholics maybe due to familiarity.
It is great that someone is saying what you are because I myself have grown tired of being pigeonholed as a Conservative. I am conservative but that does not mean that I am a Republican . I have many serious issues with the Republicans.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
And now the mortgage companies are paying for their stupidity and greed, being put out of business by bad loans.
I like this letter. Though I probably have the opposite problem. For someone like me, who was an, er, "left-wing hippy" for a number of years, and who didn't begin planning for my financial future until relatively recently, the prospect of owning my own home seems like the impossible dream (unless I buy a house in West Virgina and drive 2 1/2 hours to Silver Spring every day).
So, for me, the recent "crash" of the housing market feels like very good news, even though I am probably misunderstanding its significance, not being an economist.
I have resisted owning a cell phone for years, I don't have an I-Pod, I don't have a laptop (or even a working home computer), my TV is about 20 years old, I still use my old VCR. At the same time, I do admit I would very much like a flat screen TV, a DVD player and a laptop. My feeling is that the saying "every want isn't a need" is a good one to remember. I manage to have a full life even without these luxuries, and I still do some of my writing in a notebook in longhand.
...which reminds me of a funny story. My brother is a successful lawyer, but he doesn't own a laptop. Recently, he attended a professional conference, and, what do you know, all the conference materials were on a CD, hehehe. My brother sat there surrounded by peers with laptops and no materials. I wish I could draw a cartoon of this, because I think it is hilarious.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.