My favorite reading from this summer

From: The Cheating Culture by David Callahan

For young people, though, the biggest social-health story of the 1990s was the onslaught of a virulent new strain of consumerism. The disease begins earlier and earlier with children these days, and it just gets worse ...

"Over the past 10 years, more people have come to think of themselves as having their identites shaped by their consumer goods"...

A bit of competitive spending might be fine if it weren't so heard to keep up with those who set today's standards of material well-being.

We are now likely to compare ourselves with "Reference groups" who make much more money than we do. If you're rich, you compare yourself to the superrich ... If you're upper middle class, yo ucompare yourself to the rich. If you're middle class or lower class, you might compare yourself to both the upper middle class and the rich.

Stroll again into that Banana Republic and look around. Chances are that many of the young people buying the $42 polo shirts and the $78 jeans are plunking down plastic at what is anachronistically known as the "cash" register, and can't really afford these clothes. Unfortunately, in many urban areas the fashion taste of, say, a wealthy young advertising executive, is akin to that of a low-paid editor at a food magazine. The editor shops at Banana Republic, in part, to fit into a social and cultural environment where she regularly compares herself to people who have five times her income.

Withe pressures like these, it's no surprise that many Americans believe that more money would make them happier. And yet, like a mirage, people's definition of enough money keeps flitting into the distance. Between 1987 and 1996, a period of only modest income gains for most households, the estimate among Americans as to how much annual income they needed to live in "reasonable comfort" increased by 30 percent, while the amount of money they felt they would need to fulfill all their dreams nearly doubled, from $50,000 to $90,000...

Gaps between financial dreams and realities are hardly new in America. Some might say that these gaps are what America is about and that they are a good thing, keeping people on their toes and the economy humming. Yet there's a fine line between aspiration and envy, and between a healthy desire to get ahead and a relentless struggle to keep up.

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I read this right around the time I was starting to think that a starting salary of $50,000 as an auditor would not be very much, so it kind of struck a chord in me.

Now that I haven't had my own internet for a week (I've been going to my sublet or campus to use the internet) whenever I'm online, I stay online for a LONGGG time. Which would also explain that sudden surge in blog posts. I finally bought a dresser and a bathroom shelf, so once I finish doing that, I can finish organizing the apartment! I foresee completion by Thursday. Although I have two finals on Wednesday so maybe I should concentrate on that.

I have tons to do. I should probably go do them.