We live in a society where people love to wear masks. I mean figurative masks of people who show this facade of being rich and having a lot of money when in fact they actually don't. People feel the need to impress others with this fake wealth to give them some sense of importance and to receive some kind of external validation.
This epidemic has caused people to live beyond their means. If you can afford designer items you can go ahead and buy it, I have no issues with that. But what I think is wrong is when people buy designer items but they still haven't paid their rent, bills or even have food in their fridge. When it comes to money some people have their priorities messed up. While I was a student at university as soon as I received my student loan I paid my rent, bills bought food and any textbooks I needed. If I had money left over then I may treat myself with clothes. However there are some students out there that see their loan as an opportunity to buy cars, designer clothes but yet they still owe their landlord money.
There is a difference between necessities and wants. Some people will rather spend on their wants then necessities. What use is having a car when you don't have a roof over your head?
The world of social media has made this issue worse. Take instagram for example, some people use it as a tool to purely to convey their "rich and lavish" lifestyle that they don't really live, making other people envious of this false "lifestyle". Living in a consumerist society doesn't help the situation either. Being constantly bombarded via the media and advertising of images of all these "nice things" making us believe we need them when in actual fact we don't. Even certain hip hop video's where there is money being thrown everywhere and there are rented bentleys, rolls royce or yachts in the video to portray this glamorous life.One day whilst reading the bible I came across this verse"One man pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth (Proverbs 13:7)"This is very true (though there will be some exceptions to this).
In some of my places of employment I've come across wealthy people who never flaunt their wealth. They literally look like the average Joe. Look at Bill Gates, when was the last time you saw him flaunting his wealth?
Certain people and celebrities make comments such as "I don't like broke people" or "dont talk to me unless you are earning "x" amount of money" these statements are complete BS. I also HATE it when people think it is okay to talk down on someone because they have less money them. Since when was our worth dependent on our bank account? Isn't someone's character far more important then the money they earn? The person who is poor today maybe far richer than you in future.
Money is not permanent, you could be a millionaire one day and bankrupt the next, ask Mike Tyson he will tell you. In the capitalist society in which we live in we need money to survive and to give us a comfortable life. It is very important but when people value money above everything else then that becomes a problem. The majority of crimes are linked to money, which is usually a result of poverty or greed. Examples are those who kill their spouse so that they can claim the life insurance money, those who commit theft/robbery, fraud, money laundering and so on for monetary gain. However the bible does state this in 1 Timothy 6 :10 "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil"
Moral of the story: Be authentic! Do not allow money to take precedence over everything in your life or base your value and worth on your income and...Never allow consumerism to consume you! (pun intended)
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