Honey should we buy the 52” LCD TV?

The day after September 11, 2001, the President of the United States held a news conference.  The nation was rattled by the horrific events of the previous day and there was widespread desire to contribute to the national healing that had to take place.  One of the reporters, echoing precisely the question the country had in its collective mind, asked the question: “Mr. President, what do you want the citizens of the country to do now?”.  The President without any hesitation answered: “I want everyone to go to the malls and shop”.  The President was pilloried in some quarters for recommending such a selfish act of shopping and not calling the country to a collective sense of purpose. 

Consumption and material possession evokes mixed feelings in most people.  I believe the dichotomy to the act of shopping reflects a more fundamental ambivalence we have to the concept of material possession.  We are often conditioned in our thinking about material possession by our subscription to certain moral values and economic principles.  I believe there is a third dimension to the question of material possession that should influence our decision.  Before I expound on this dimension, let us take a closer look at how most of us are conditioned in our ambivalence by our moral values and our understanding of economic theories.

Many people look to the scriptures to get a moral guidance on basic every day topics.  However, the scriptures have conflicting advice on this topic.  Let us take Timothy 6:8 “But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that”.  Here the Bible sides with frugality and espouses consuming only what is needed for subsistence.  But let us turn the page and look at Matthew 6:31 and it says “But seek thee first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” which could be interpreted to say you seek God, material possessions will come to you in plenty.  Here possession in itself is not castigated. 

I have to say this ambivalence to material possession is not limited to the Christian scriptures.  I am of the Hindu faith.  In the Hindu spiritual books, we have the same conflicting guidance.  At various times, austerity is praised.  And at other times we are also taught that God’s blessing is needed for one to acquire wealth and material possessions.  We even have a God, in our pantheon of Gods, who you propitiate to acquire wealth.  You often see the wealthier people seeking this God’s blessing with even more vigor.

Turning from the spiritual to the economics, there are two schools of thoughts with regards to consumption.  When the economic times are good, I have seen many a TV shows where the pop economists rail about the virtue of Japanese and other eastern cultures where the per capita savings is very high.  The implied message from these economists often is that US is living way beyond its means and consumption is not healthy for the national economy.  But when there is a down turn in the economy and the consumers tighten their wallets, the same economists seek a stimulus package to encourage consumer spending.  I am no economist, and so are majority of the population, but the conflicting positions are confusing to say the least.

So what should an ordinary person, the Joe six-pack, do?  When you have to make a decision about that 52” TV, or the sun room extension to your house, or to buy the high tech Video game console, is there another way of viewing this decision?  I think the answer is yes.

This third view is to look at in the larger context of the meaning of life.  After all we have one life to live and we are all searching for the core of life called happiness.  And a measure of happiness is the strength and depth of bond that you form with your loved ones and friends.  The fabric of bond is knitted over your lifetime by increasing the opportunities to spend time together and sharing common experiences. In this modern world, where our time is fissured into so many activities, all of us have an obligation to increase the opportunities where you can spend the time together and weave that knit of bonding tighter. 

The 52” TV could be the catalyst for you to sit with your son and enjoy a football game.  Or the week long vacation in a cabin in the wilderness of Pocono Mountains could be the perfect setting for you, your spouse and children to read a book together and tell each other what it means to each of you.  Such moments of intimacy, as the TV commercial says, are priceless.

So while we have many guideposts in our life and we live our life to fit within these guideposts, it would serve you well once in a while to look at your pedestrian life decisions in a larger context.  When you look back 10 or 20 years and ruminate on the memories, you may be wondering why I didn’t do it more often.