There has and always will be in each and every human the need for bigger, better shinier objects. From the simplest things such as new shoes to more complex desires such as partners, cars, houses, and entertainment. Where do we draw the line to contentment? What exactly is it that drives us to the need to possess the newest, coolest, shiniest object we can find?
Perhaps the answer lies in the question itself, as any intelligent person would plainly see by the question alone how frivolous a task this is. We seek that which others or ourselves would find to be something more special than the next person has. It's not so much a matter of possession at all so much as having possession of something bigger, better, stronger, faster and shinier to place ourselves up 1 step higher than the next person.
To most people a newer car would surely be the way to go and of course you'll see quite a few new shiny cars on the roads driven by total idiots who god only knows managed to get a drivers license in the first place let alone managed to figure out how to put the damn thing in drive. Then you'll see a lot of older cars, some perhaps not in the best of shape but still running while others have been maintained and kept clean and shiny and well running for many many years. The value isn't based on the year make and model of the car so much as the amount of pride, care and dedicated maintainability the owner puts into that car.
You could go grab a brand new car off the lot and be the cool kid on the block until you forget to put oil in one day and you then have a useless shiny car that doesn't run, while that older car that's been meticulously cared for since the dark ages goes driving by mockingly followed by an old rusted out pickup doing the same. Where is the real value of "newer - shinier"????
Will that new car really get you to work faster and make you the talk of the town? Perhaps it might for a little while till someone else has a newer shinier car indeed as is going to happen eventually. In the end we're left having to constantly upgrade our shiny objects for what? To keep up with the status quo? To keep up with being cool? To keep up with our neighbors? To satisfy our inner arrogance? Or is it just a matter of frivolous spending and a meaningless game to achieve nothing but wasting time trying to have the newest coolest shiniest object?
You tell me...
