Josh

For my final I chose to talk about how bigger is better, or how the option to have everything at our finger tips has lead to the US wanting more material things. I can remember back in my time when if you had a million dollars you were rich. Now if you can claim to have a million dollars, your average. This has affected me for a ong time. I dont know if I have told anyone but I have served a mission for my church in Brazil. I was there for 2 years. I saw poverty at its best. I met poeple that lived with nothing and were happy. After I came home I realized how much I had and still wanted. That is just ugly. I can get by with next to nothing and I should be happy, if that were only true. I found a vidoe that shows some of the people down there. You can see the houses but they are so happy. media type="youtube" key="eoaTl7IcFs8" height="340" width="560" align="center"

One of the main problems with mass media is that is had lead to the average person wanting more. I need to have more than my neighbor. I can see this happening with the TV commericals and the shows. They are showing that the cars need to be larger, the houses need to be bigger, and the familys need to come second. We are quicly becoming a society in debt. I know this has happened to me. I want this now so I will pay for it later. Then I end up paying twice to three times the worth of said item. In order to fix this I need to change my wants or do away with them. I need to focus on things that I need and work towards those first. I think the best work I had was with the blog presentation I did.

Looking at people and their houses one can come to the conclusion that the bigger the house the wealthier the people and the happier they may seem. This can be quit bias as we see more and more that the large houses cannot be purchased or that they do not bring happines. How many times I have driven by a house and thought some day I hope to afford something like that. My kids would love it....Now after the market fell, I see places that are shells or hopes of dreams. The ideology behind bigger is better comes to mind here. How many times have we thought that the larger the item, the better it is. I know that I have fallen victim to this thinking process. Going through the grocery store or ordering at the fast food joint. Would you like to upgrade that to the largest possible size?? Sure why not for 40 cents. Now Im holding a big ass cup of soda, fries and trying to eat a burger while driving home.....then I wonder why im feeling like crap for the next couple of hours. I have to remember, Oh yeah I over ate because I wanted to get my monies worth. To me it is the same thing with this house. how many people do you need to fill it up? Why not just get something that will keep you comfortable? Because thats not the American view. We have been raised that you need to open your eyes and get something bigger then your neighbors, parents, or siblings. The pictures I chose are those of a mansion and an overstuffed hampster. I don't know how many times I ahve done this or will do it, hopefully I about to stop. I am giving up on eating out, and of over stuffing my face. Just not as muich fun as it used to be.

I have learned that in order to try and fix this want in the society it needs to start at home with me and my family. If we can fix it with ourselves, we might be able to tget our friends and family to start on that also. it would be great to be poor and happy instead of poor and envious of what someone else has. I want to be the thin hamster. I hope that we can reverse what the media has been teaching us about bigger is better. I feel that after researching this project I have gained the knowledge necessary to change my view and that of my familys. I hope you all feel the same way.

I hope that you can take away at least 5 things from this post. 1) Bigger is NOT better, be happy with what you got. 2) Money is not that important. 3) Enjoy life while you can, you never know when it will change or end. 4) Don't be the greedy hamster. 5) Debt is of the devil.