by Angelique Reder

Created on: November 29, 2008

Does materialism mean the death of spirituality?

I, personally believe the answer is yes.

This morning as I watched the news and heard the story of the Wal-Mart employee that was trampled to death because he was preparing to unlock the doors at 5 am, to open the store for business, and the crowd outside had already removed the door hinges, then shoved the door down on top of the employee.

The crowd of some 2000 people then trampled over the door, crushing the employee to death.

As astounded as I was by the story, it was topped off with a high power attorney, saying that it was Wal-Mart's fault the employee was killed, and they must be held fully accountable.

I could not believe the blame was being placed on the store, that had in preparations for the sale, hired extra security, and added local law enforcement.

The mere fact that the store felt it had to increase security to that level because of the risk due to the greed of it's customers, is a huge statement all in it's own right.

Are people truly so eager to spend their money on what I call disposable, worthless assets, once they walk out of the door with it, that they will disregard common decency?

One description of a disposable, worthless asset is something like a PS3, it's out dated by the time it hits the market, and has a resale value of less than one tenth of the $500.00 purchase price. The gaming system has bugs that have yet to be worked out, and you're going to pay more than $50.00 a game.

It costs less than $50.00 dollars for the company to produce each unit, and they pass that savings on to the consumer through a 400 to 500% mark up.

I can understand a mark up to cover labor costs, and still derive a profit, but that kind of profit, is ridiculous. It's not a car, it is not a priority by any means, yet people are trampling each other to be milked out of their hard earned money.

That is the part that stumps me the most, especially at a time when people are losing their jobs, homes, cars, and outright independence.

Yesterday, my husband was attacked by a man that was trying to steal his work van. Luckily, my husband was not seriously injured, and the thief, I am certain will be more cautious on his next attempt.

If the man had been able to steal my husband's van, my husband would have been out of his job.

We don't mind living within our means, maybe because we've truly had little choice in the matter. Until 7 months ago my husband was an American laborer, competing with illegal aliens for work, and wages. And,

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