Are material possessions worth the amount of hours we put in to acquire most of them?

Question

Excluding per say a house.

Answer 1

Probably not, but what else do you want to do all day?

Answer 2

Absolutely not. Most of what we buy, we do notneed. Then we work longer and harder to buy even bigger things. We're convinced we need a new car every 3 years. Advertising tells us we can't have self esteem without buying the latest products.

I used to be like that, too. I started buying all these things that I thought would make me happy. Instead each of them is another chain holding me back: something to clean, something to maintain, something to insure and protect. The novelty wears off long before the credit card payments are paid off.

Now I buy only what I need. No, I don't have the newest car or a plasma TV, but I do have money in the bank if I get hurt/sick/laid off. I also don't have to work 40 - 50+ hours a week just to make ends meet. I can be home with my family LIVING life.

Answer 3

The value of something is relative. If you work 10 hours to earn the money to buy something, then at the time that may be the value. But over time as monetary value depriciates you are left with the personal value.
I have a 50 year old child's chair that my grandfather made for my dad. It has been spilled on, soiled through diapers, chewed on by numerous pets and broken by being jumped into. It has no monetary value whatsoever. But it keeps getting fixed and every child in our family had their name carved on the bottom. The value of it is not in what was spent to make it or repair it, but in what I would give to keep it.

Answer 4

I am not religious anymore, but I do remember one passage that seems to explain this from the old testament. Just take it as a bit of wisdom from lots of experience... And you cannot buy experience. Paraphrased, it says that treasures on earth are subject to moths and rust. That says a lot. Think of all the people who have gone before you trying to accumulate wealth. See how many of them were really happy. One story I heard long ago was the guy who headed up Kodak in the 1920's virtually owned Rochester NY. He was found sitting in his penthouse apartment atop one of his many buildings looking out of his french doors onto the town that he almost owned entirely... He had shot himself in the head. His note says I have it all there is no need to go on. Life is a journey. The destination is not of much importance. We are all going to die. But it is what you do with that journey that counts. The Pursuit of Happiness discussed in the Declaration of Independence is a myth. Happiness must not be pursued. It is to allusive. It is like a butterfly, which was the most frequently found drawing on the walls of the prisoner barracks in the Holocaust concentration camps. If you consider others, and spend your life journey in that mode, happiness will just come and light on your shoulder one day soon, and you will realize one of the greatest secrets of life. Good Luck!

Answer 5

I think the answer would depend on the person and the value he/she puts on material things. I also think the answer would more often be "yes" for a younger person, and "no" for an older person. Possessions (except for a few special things) tend to mean less and less with age.

Answer 6

I have no possessions and I spent a lot of physical and mental energy to earn the money needed to purchase those possessions.

Starting over is a turnoff so I can adjust to having no possessions. My life is still valuable - not what I have or what I think I have.

Answer 7

material possessions aren't worth the money we spend on them so the hours we put in to acquire them isn't worth much.

Answer 8

Something that I learned from an unfortunate house fire: in the end, it all burns. Material possessions do not give lasting happiness, if their sudden disappearance does not cause lasting grief.

Answer 9

All I know is that my life is void of meaning without the new Swiffer Wet-Jet Deluxe Cleaning System (R). I'll do whatever I have to to get it. Gotta go...there's another commercial coming on...

Answer 10

I guess that would depend entirely on the people putting in he hours and the possessins they owned. I,m sure that some people would say "sure" and others would say " Kinda" and still others would say "no".
Depending really on your materialist self I guess.

Answer 11

No. I bought my husband a fishing reel for $300 for Father's Day & he has not used it once. He purchased a nano i pod for me for my birthday & I haven't even added any music to it. We could of used that money for bill, groceries, vacation, ect. but we wasted it away for B S.