Materialism in Today's society
...own. It is one thing for a somebody to be wealthy, but it is immoral for this wealthy person to claim that they live on a “farm” just so they can get tax cuts on their one hundred acre property. This is a perfect example of when people take advantage of the money they have, when in reality they “farm” that they live on only has one or two chickens. This is how people of great wealth become greedy. They try to cut around every corner to possibly save money, but at the same time they are clearly being immoral. It is not fair to the rest of the community because they are stuck with paying excess taxes to make up for what is supposed to be farmland that benefits the community. It is hard to consider somebody moral when they spend excess amounts of money on frivolous things, when that money could be put towards something more meaningful. The thousands of dollars that were spent on cars could have been put towards their child’s education, but if it is spent of something of worth, it is not as bad as blowing it on materialistic needs. It is tough to distinguish the line between morality and immorality, primarily because this issue is viewed differently from both sides of the financial hierarchy. These are 2 totally different worlds, that of your average income family, and the tremendously affluent families like the Johnson’s. Granted when you are this wealthy, you need not worry about a hundred thousand dollars here or there. But the fact that this money is just being used for luxuries seems like somewhat of a waste. David Brooks’ first rule of Conscientious Consumption is that “Only vulgarians spend a lot of money on luxuries; restrict your lavish spending on necessities” (Brooks). This supports the argument that excessive spending is immoral. I have some mixed feelings about lavish spending. If somebody is born into a family with old money, they take what they have for granted. While on the other hand, a person of average wealth knows the true value of money and what it means to work for it. After watching the documentary that was made by the Johnson & Johnson heir, it became apparent that people as rich as them become depended on the art of spending money. Everything they own is of the utmost quality and name brand. It is the same with everything, from the cars they buy to the palace of a house that they live in. All young heir’s that were interviewed felt the same way when they were asked the same question, “What would you do if you had no money.” For the most part all of them said that they could not imagine what life would be like without money. Some could not even bring themselves to think about the subject. This leads back to the idea of excess money possibly leading to an immoral way living. The fact that they would not know how to live without the abundance of money they have is sad. The very minute percentage that is as affluent as them live so vicariously, while the rest of the population makes due with what they are given...