Materialism vs. Motivation.

I often mock those who splurge on expensive clothing, fine-dining, and cars with engines huge enough to power a jet plane. However, deep inside, I know that I sometimes spill those words out of envy. I have heard more that enough people who have said similar things, whether or not they really have the desire to 'live a simple life', but I guess that only a handful of them really resist living a luxurious lifestyle if given the chance to. I really cannot imagine how many people, if given the chance to at no cost, would choose to live a totally frugal lifestyle over one of immense luxury. Granted, money does not buy you happiness, but you cannot really insist that money brings misery, can you?

Maybe it's true sometimes, in an attempt to protect or dignity and self-identity, that we condemn those who can afford to live differently form us. It might be our subconsciousness at work, telling us that spending $50 on a dinner is 'an utter waste of money', even if the person is essentially drawing a salary 10 times of ours. I would suspect that if each of us had our chance to earn the same salary as the top 1% of the population, we'd sooner or later learn to induldge in their lifestyle.

I am not suggesting that materialism is not a moral threat to society, neither am I encouraging people to spend money excessively. Materalism is still a big threat to society if left uncontrolled and our children uneducated of the ill-effects of it. Maybe we just need to learn to look from different perspectives, letting such dreams be a form of motivation, rather than condemning the rich in a hope to keep our children 'on track'. I don't think any parent would want their children to live a simple life and not strive for anything higher, right?