I like to browse real estate websites and drool over spacious homes with spectacular views and gracious interiors. Recently, I’ve been looking at luxury apartments in Manhattan. One building features his and hers bathtubs. Another offers a special room for washing the dog. One townhouse includes an indoor swimming pool fed by a waterfall.
Prices? A hedge fund manager recently paid $115 million for a duplex with an East River view.
That’s obscene. I’m no communist, but surely there should be a moral limit on how much you spend on yourself when people are sleeping on the sidewalk a few blocks away. However, it’s not the extravagance of billionaires that troubles me. It’s how much we in the 99 percent admire and copy them.
For example, American weddings are a $51 billion industry. Those in the business have convinced us to forget budgets when it comes to her once-in-a-lifetime day. Consequently, the average wedding today costs between $15,000 and $40,000. Few people have that much saved. So the couple either enters marriage carrying a big debt or leaves their parents with one.
A wedding should be close family and friends witnessing a sacrament and giving a little financial assistance to the newlyweds. A lavish party does not guarantee a happy marriage. Indeed, a big production creates stress and almost guarantees the bride and groom will end up screaming at each other. My husband and I eloped. Fifty years later, I wonder if perhaps we were smarter than we knew.
It’s not just weddings. Advertisers for every industry do a terrific job of convincing us that luxuries are really necessities. I remember when a prosperous family owned one television, and we all watched it together. Now every member “needs” his or her own TV, car, computer, cellphone and iPod. How do we teach our children self-sacrifice when they’ve never even had to share?
I found this past December particularly depressing. I’ve made peace with the commercialization of Christmas. I know that Santa, not Jesus, is the reason for the secular season. This year, though, was really bad. From Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, the news media harped on the idea that unless we all spent a lot of money on presents, America would remain stuck in a recession. There’s something fundamentally wrong when our economy’s strength depends on citizens spending more than they earn.
When my parents died, all I wanted was the scrapbooks. Everything else in the house was just stuff, and I have a bunch of that already. Someday my children will sell or give away most of it, because they too have more stuff than they need. So why buy more? As Pope Francis has said, “Poverty in the world is a scandal. In a world where there is so much wealth, so many resources to feed everyone, it is unfathomable that there are so many hungry children, that there are so many children without an education, so many poor persons.”
Maybe we Christians could set an example next Christmas. Instead of buying each other things we don’t really need, we could show extra generosity to the poor. Maybe Christian brides and grooms could ask wedding guests to donate to their favorite charity in the name of the newlyweds. We could take birthdays, anniversaries and holidays back from the florists and greeting card companies. Instead, we’d spend our time with our loved ones and our money on those in greater need.
Christians comprise one seventh of the world’s population. Imagine how we could change the world if we all said, “You know what? I’ve got enough.”
Kathleen welcomes comments. Send them to Kathleen Choi, 1706 Waianuenue Ave., Hilo, HI 96720, or e-mail: kathchoi@hawaii.rr.com.