05 February, 2009

Correlation between low self-esteem and materialism

I found this article fascinating, even if a lot of it is just plain common sense.

Quote of the week:
“The only reason a great many American families don't own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments.”
There's plenty of materialism here as well, though. I don't think that European families would necessarily be any slower to jump on the elephant trend if they could. But rather than weekly payments they'd just by it Aldi.

5 comments:

C N Heidelberg said...

Good post!! Materialism is a pet peeve of mine that has only increased with my move to Germany. Although they have it here too, I think Germans have a long, long way to go before they catch up to Americans on the materialism front. I was never one who could afford to buy into it that much anyway, but even for me, when I moved here I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. The intense pressure to buy this and that and everything was gone!!

Goofball said...

I can't compare between materialism between Europe and the States really....but I do think we don't buy as much on credit. The Belgians for sure don't: we have the second highest savings ratio in the world after Japan.

but we are nevertheless materialistic as well.

Anonymous said...

That is so true, about the Americans and the Germans. The Americans would strap live cats on their feet for shoes as long as they cost a lot and had a 'no cash down' offer. And the Germans would buy monkey hair tea if Aldi had it on special.

Betsy said...

They sell monkey hair tea now at Aldi???!!! PLEASE don't tell my husband, because he'll drive out there at the next possible opportunity... ;-)

Jen said...

I think this is killing our society and most of the industrial world.