The Treasure Trap

It seems that early in my adult life I was constantly requiring rewards, payday would come along and the money would not even burn a hole in my pocket because it was never going to arrive there in the first place.

The advent of TV and the glossy magazines and billboards that dominate our society became a constant reminder that I should buy stuff to be happy, apparently, that was the only thing that could make me happy and content, stuff.

But it never did in the long run.

So, I bought more.

I've talked before about the credit trap, and from my own personal experience, it is a very elaborate trap that is extremely difficult to escape from.

The group Pink Floyd, defined our society as a machine, and what an efficient machine it is. The machine educates all levels of the consumer society, enticing us all into spending hard earned cash on the "must have" things that are needed, to be happy.

Once again, Jimmy has his two cents worth here:

"Some spend money that they do not have, to buy things they do not need, to impress people they do not like...."

That's a good point and back to my mothers comment about "all fur coat and no knickers" where it is actually the facade of wealth that needs to be portrayed to win points over other people. The reverse of this are the people in our society, who have a lot of money, and are quite happy to hang around in their old brown shoes and jeans, with no requirement or urge to impress.

But, enough about me.

I digress somewhat, the key thing here is although the credit trap is elaborate and well honed, it is reasonably easy to avoid if you take a contrarian approach to what the machine is telling you. Yes, it is a consumer society but leave the frenzied buying to the rest of them, as I've said before, you have to stop digging to get out of the hole.

If you are already in the trap, well, admit it and do something about it. There are non profit agencies out there that can offer good advice and constructive help, again be wary of anything that is free and always look for "traps within the trap" where those that offer to help are just after their own piece of your misery.

At the end of the day, there is really only one person who can control what you spend.

And that be you.