Displaying Wealth

The measure of success is not by the wealth a person has accumulated, but by the display of that wealth. Displaying wealth has become rather an art. It needs to be subtle, yet obvious enough to show that what you have is better. Also you need to be consistent in your displaying of wealth. You need to buy right things at right time. Otherwise, you become a source of criticism or even worse, a laughingstock. A lady who bought a dress that is out of fashion will not likely be envied no matter how expensive that dress was. As it is apparent, displaying wealth takes a considerable effort. We often read about ridiculous and unnecessarily expensive items and people who are stupid enough to buy them. Here I’m talking about things such as a million dollar hello kitty doll covered in diamonds that does nothing. We can all point finger at people like that and make fun of them, but displaying wealth in such way has bigger social consequences. If you ask children to draw an image of successful person, they will probably draw a guy in suit with a nice car and a big house. Why isn’t that we don’t associate successful life with happy family in a modestly sized home? Why is our notion of successful life depended upon wealth?
This idea of success seems to be the driving force in today’s society. Our society needs people to be envious. We need people to build new things, buy new things, and want better things. Therefore in order to encourage spending, companies bombard us with the images of superfluous lifestyle. The obvious down side is that it makes people generally unsatisfied and unhappy. People work hard and spend more time working to get there, but less on enjoying life.
By accumulating wealth, people want to increase their value, and feel good about themselves for what they’ve accumulated. Many people base their self value in comparison with their neighbors. If I live in a bigger house, I must be making more money than my neighbors, and therefore more valuable than them. The easiest and the cruelest way to assess a person is by his appearance. These hints do give some information about a person’s status, but nothing about a person standing when everything else is removed from him.
We have hard time accepting that we are all humans. We can easily equate ourselves with people who seem to be better off than us. But it is difficult to think that I and a drug addict on the street are both children of God. It is unlikely that people will stop judging others by wealth, and focus their lives on other aspects of life. I also don’t think it can be changed because it is so deeply rooted in human selfishness and the desire to be superior. Real changing of heart and desire can only be accomplished by the grace of God.