Materialism

Materialism. We all know what it is and as Americans, I think it's pretty safe to say we are all undeniably guilty of it. Obsession and greed definitely play a huge role in this. As children in other countries don't have clean water to drink, enough food to eat, books to learn from, and shoes for their feet, we are, individually, splurging thousands and thousands of dollars each year on updating our cell phones and iPods, shopping for the latest, most trendy clothes and shoes, or the fastest, "cutest" car, most of which are eventually just thrown away (most of it just piling up in landfills, only destroying the Earth more than it already did during the creation of the darn thing) so we can move on to the next "coolest" thing. And that's just what they all are - things, stuff, completely unimportant and insignificant to the whole of our lives. And for what? Because we have the means to buy this stuff, because we are greedy and selfish and blinded to the reality of it all. While some people are sitting in their luxuriously furnished living rooms with their feet propped up watching their 72" plasma screen TV, texting their friends on their iTouch cell phone, surfing the web on their laptops, wearing their name brand clothes, all while eating a fat sandwich, families are starving, catching diseases, and dying because they literally don't have the means to SURVIVE. But what do we care? We have everything we need, want, and more, so who cares what's happening to anyone else around us or thousands of miles away? I think you're probably getting the picture. Now I'm not saying all of this as if I'm some saint who does no wrong and helps everybody, because I'm just as guilty of all of this as the next person. Materialism is like a disease -- it's contagious, it spreads fast, and it's hard to stop. But to make our world a better place, materialism seriously has got to be controlled in some way, or at least more awareness of the situation needs to be made in some way. Something that really gets put in someone's face to make them feel guilty about it and their careless, selfish ways. Something that might really engrave this problem into people's heads, even if only SOME people, that really might make them change their "materialistic ways" in some manner... every effort, and every person really can lead to a change. I think I have some ideas of how to bring about this social problem...
Think about this: At least 80% of the human population lives on less than $10 a day.