| For some, it is the pursuit of financial independence, a worthy goal. But for others, it's pure materialism. We all must consume to survive, of course. But when consumerism becomes an end in itself, when it overruns more important ideals, provides the measure of our success, or corrodes our capacity to know the truth, see beauty, or feel love, our lives are diminished. Some will argue that for economies to flourish, we need rampant consumerism. It is consumers' insatiable hunger for more stuff that fuels the economic engine. In many ways, this is true. In fact, the notion itself is hardly new. In 1759, Adam Smith wrote in The Theory of Moral Sentiments... The pleasures of wealth and greatness... strike the imagination as something grand and beautiful and noble, of which the attainment is well worth all the toil and anxiety which we are so apt to bestow upon it... It is this deception which rouses and keeps in continual motion the industry of mankind. Notice that Smith, the father of free markets, refers to the endless pursuit of more as "this deception." He recognized that the needs of a vibrant economy and the requirements for us to be happy as individuals are not the same. Studies show that the riches and material goods we desire should we have the good fortune to acquire them - won't make us happy for long. Yet we often imagine they will, even when experience teaches us otherwise. Walk into your local auto dealership, for example, and check out the cars in the showroom. They look sharp. They smell good. The tires have been blackened. The exteriors have been waxed, polished, and Windexed until they gleam. In short, we are seduced by their newness. And even though we know that a new automobile is perhaps the world's fastest-depreciating asset - and within weeks we will be mindlessly traveling from point A to B without a second thought about our vehicle's make or model - we plunk for one. As my grandmother used to say, "Most people can't tell the difference between what they want and what they need." (This remark, incidentally, was generally directed toward me and my latest six-dollar object of fascination at F.W. Woolworth's.) Look around today and you'll have no problem finding folks with plenty of neat things: big cars, fancy boats, the latest electronic gadgets, and all sorts of expensive "bling." They seem to have it all. What you may not realize is how many of them are two payments from the edge... Yet some middle-class Americans remain obsessed with what they don't have. To some, it just doesn't seem right - doesn't seem fair that others have so much more than they do. But the pursuit of happiness isn't about accumulation. It's about understanding value, practicing gratitude, and recognizing that true wealth transcends material possessions. As political satirist P.J. O'Rourke observed... I've got a 10-year-old at home, and she's always saying, "That's not fair." When she says that, I say, "Honey, you're cute; that's not fair. Your family is pretty well off; that's not fair. You were born in America; that's not fair. Darling, you had better pray to God that things don't start getting fair for you." Good investing, Alex | 
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