YES!

I think some of it is this generation has never had to suffer through a major depression or recession where they had to scrimp and save to just buy bread and milk. They have never had to go without the electric gadgets to buy clothes.

Also so many families out there live above their means, and just charge it if they can't afford it.

The media does have a lot to do with our "need" for more "stuff". However, you do not have to buy into that mentality as if you have no choice. My family decided to not have tv in our home and it has made a HUGE difference. Also, I do not read/subscribe to the many women's magazines because they all try to make you feel that what you are and what you have is not enough, and if you will only buy THIS thing, your house looks like THIS, go on THIS diet, etc..only then will you be happy.

I Agree that we all Have a Choice -
however I think that the Materialistic views have Gotten Way WAY out of hand.

And I rarely watch TV - but It seems Even if you go to Your Kids soccer game or school event - there are adults who Are there to show off ... I look Down My Street and There are Material Items Galore -

I also Find that no matter what I Teach in my house -
My Kids still see things at other Kids houses -

Like My Friend is great and My Son loves to Play there - Yet they Have 3 Flat screen Tvs.
And Yet another Kid who is Great - Has parents who are Divorced - and his Dad - Who only has him twice a month - has everything Under the Son for this Kid.

Playstation 3
Laptop
A wii
Pool Table
Arcade games -
You name it ...

So I say unless you live in a Box .... Material Ways and the "gotta have it" Mentality hit you everyday .

Are we not in someways raised with material ways. My DH and I are from different income levels and life styles. He had times growing up where his whole family lived out of a camping trailor and my house I grew up in as a teenage was 2700 sqft and I had my own walk in closet to put all my stuff. I was raised to appreciate material things, I because my parents always had nice things. I was a regular at Nordstrums as a child $60 for a dress was ok. My DH didn't have and so hoards what he does he is materialistic in the fact that he wants what others have. I think materialism is in escapeble yes the media promotes it but so do we as parents in the types of things we buy or don't buy for ourselves. You really can't win unless you are a hermit who is happy living off the land.

__________________
Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006 &

Organizer of the Coupon Clippers of Tacoma

I agree too that advertising has a lot to do with it "Because I'm worth it" or "Man, it's so good you've got to have it", or what about the new commericial where the cc is so fast and easy and paying with cash gets you dirty looks for holding up the line? Not to mention hip looking kids dancing and eating the latest snack fad, beautiful women driving convertibles with perfect, bouncy hair while men look at them admiringly, or a spray on cologne that makes any man desirable in an instant? Advertising is big business and we are the targets, (well our money anyway). And a lot of people have bought into the idea that they deserve it, everyone else does it, just put it on the cc, and deal with it later. Americans are so overprivledged (for the most part) and we have forgotten how incredibly well we live. My husband is from a tiny island in the pacific. Two years ago my family went for the first time to his island to attend a family members funeral. We are talking poor! In the city they did have running water and electricity. However very few had refridgerators, stoves or indoor showers or furniture. The cost of food was ridiculous because everything had to be shipped in (a box of cereal was $6.00, a dozen eggs was $3.50, gas was $6.oo/gallon). In the country (where we were for the majority of our stay)there was no running water (you bathed in the stream, used water from a natural spring to cook and drink), no electricity (kerosine lanterns, and fires used to cook by), and the houses were in a valley no car could get to so you walked everywhere. There were no food programs for the children in school they ate whatever their parents had available. clothes were washed in the river (seriously). I came home to my small U.S. house and felt like the richest person in the world, It is all a matter of perspective.