Stuff...I do not need more stuff

Remember the crazy commentary by George Carlin about "stuff"?  Well worth listening to again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac

I am paraphrasing, but he talked about our love of "stuff" and the need for more "stuff".  

George was not wrong. In fact, he was commenting in this 1986 clip about the very condition which is leading us into the "next great depression"....debt. Consumer debt...and it is at an all time high. The last 30 years of "debt based consumerism" is truly going to come home to roost soon. The signs are everywhere.

People are living pay check to pay check. If there is a single disruption in the flow of income, households fail and houses that were paid on for sometimes decades are lost. OBAMA wants businesses and consumers to spend more and is providing incentives to help us make that decision. You cannot spend your way out of a recession on debt. But he has...some 7 trillion and counting.

We have surrounded ourselves with stuff of all kinds. Good stuff, important stuff, bad stuff, stuff that made us feel good for 5 seconds after we said we would buy it. Old stuff, new stuff, mom's stuff, dad's stuff and even stuff they received from their parents and grandparents. Its not the stuff we receive free that is the problem. It is the covet we have for new stuff we need to present an image to the world that is the problem. God said "Thou shalt not covet...."

I know a man who has one plate, one set of utensil's and almost no stuff. He is a very happy person and fun to talk to. Somehow this 75 year old man has managed to be unbridled by the mass of stuff the rest of us seem to accumulate. He does not need storage buildings to hold his excess stuff and he does not need a giant house to display all his stuff. He lives in a 20 by 20 wood frame foot house that has lots of room. More room than I have in some spaces I care not to mention. Yes. I am a pack rat of sorts....but that's story for a different mental condition. Hording.

Our stuff is going to be the end of us. China is banking on us wanting more stuff. When the big one comes...and is is coming...all that stuff we have will be near worthless. Who will want that $600 treadmill to stay looking great, when there is barely enough food to eat or money to buy it. That nice dress suit will be cozy as we warm up to the fire place because we can't afford the electricity to heat our home. That expensive car will not be needed either when fuel hits $4 a gallon...or how about $5, 6 or 7. 

The point here is when things go bad, the stuff we coveted and cared for over the years will become worthless to us. It's funny how quick we mentally can go from "I always want this with me" to "You can have it for cheap."   You see it morph verbally at garage sales every weekend.

We all should look around our house and decide what is just clutter an what is real and essential to our lives. Sell off what you can now before it is worth less to buyers who learn that stuff is just that..stuff.

Garage sale anyone???