This Christmas I got to see my brother in law's new place. He and his wife have a huge house in the suburbs, in the sort of place where the idea of a pedestrian is laughable and the driveways are full of expensive, new vehicles.
I had no idea how to talk about the house.
I know I am supposed to say it is a nice house.
And it certainly is pretty, tidy, and well built. No denying any of that! But it makes me feel so odd to be in such an enormous place. Six bathrooms. So many ovens. Two washer and dryer sets, only a dozen steps from one another.
My brain is saying that nobody needs all this stuff and all this space. More than that, the money involved in making these ridiculous extras (the extra washer and dryer is the thing I can't get over) could have done so many more useful things for people with so much less money.
It isn't as though my brother and sister in law have done anything wrong - they earned their money, they bought a gigantic house that they are really excited about. It is more that being in such a place really slams home to me just how warped the system is that people have so much, especially since they aren't even the super wealthy. They don't have ten million dollars, much less 100 billion dollars. Their wealth is nothing compared to some, and they are just existing in a system they did not create.
But it still leaves me at a loss. To ignore it, to just pay bland compliments, feels like being complicit in the extreme disparity of wealth in the world. On the other hand I can't see how I help anything by turning a house tour into a rant about wealth inequality either.
If I am honest, it is also just an artifact of how much money I have. I know plenty of people who must feel the same way seeing my condo simply because I own it and they see no prospect of ever having that much wealth for themselves. Any time you are out of your element in terms of social status and wealth it feels weird.
Am I just creating all this because I feel strange being around people who have so much more than me? Maybe. Hard to say.
Hey, Sky.. Hmmm. Made me think. And start about five conversztions in my head. That's a good thing, right?
ReplyDeleteIt certainly isn't their fault that they have the ability to consume to such excess. Even if they felt as guilty about it as I probably would it wouldn't make the world a better place, it would just make them feel worse.
ReplyDeleteThe whole system needs to be burnt to the ground.