Well, this is interesting. I’d heard that Millard Fuller, the man who’d started Habitat for Humanity, passed away, but I didn’t realize how much Christian influence was injected into it.
Fuller gave up his business and wealth and developed a non-profit housing ministry for the poor, which in 1976 became Habitat for Humanity International. Habitat, made famous by Fuller’s friend, former President Jimmy Carter, relies on volunteer labor and donated or subsidized materials (often provided by church groups) to build modest, affordable houses for low-income families. Habitat groups have built more than 300,000 houses around the world. In 1996, President Bill Clinton gave Fuller the Presidential Medal of Freedom and called Habitat “the most successful continuous community service project in the history of the United States.”
Fuller and Habitat’s board clashed in 2004 over a number of issues, including an allegation that Fuller sexually harassed a female colleague. The board decided there was no evidence to support that allegation, but they fired Fuller in January 2005 for his “divisive and disruptive comments.” Fuller then started another ministry called the Fuller Center for Housing in Americus.
But, that isn’t actually what I wanted to focus on here. I wanted to quote this bit:
“We have confused, as a society, wants and needs, and a lot of people have raised up their wants way above their needs and way above their abilities to support all those wants,” Fuller said at the University of Arkansas Clinton School for Public Service. “What we have got to do is get back to the basics in difficult economic times like this and explain to people that you will not wither up and die if you don’t have that wide-screen TV.“
The emphasis is entirely mine there. I love that line. I used to work in the Electronics area of Wal-Mart and every night when we’d sit through the stupid “here’s how well we did!” meeting, Electronics topped the list every night for highest sales. People love to buy for entertainment and I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t admit I tossed $40 this week towards two seasons of Stargate SG-1. But it has been a long time since I bought anything watchable.
I work for the library and the library gets a hell of a lot of DVDs, both popular and obscure titles. I haven’t rented a movie in years. The library has a lot of television series, including Stargate, but I’m starting to get embarrassed by the number of times I’ve requested them, hence the buy. Yes, I could have copied them, but I don’t do that kind of thing. I’m sure most borrowers do, though.
I’m digressing. Point was the definition of enough. Fuller dealt with houses, so let’s look at houses. There’s a 4000 sq. ft. home for sale outside town, and they want nearly 2 million dollars for it. I’ll bet Mark and Barb Wouters would get a pretty nice commission off that sale, if they could ever unload it. There’s a 4200 sq. ft. available in town for $839,900. Who needs that much space? And how much would you feel you had to buy in order to fill it up?
People are really going to have to learn how to make do with less and how to curb the urge to upgrade and replace things that don’t need replacing. I’ve never been one who can shop for the sake of shopping. Working retail helped solidify my distaste for consumerism in general. It really is amazing how much money gets spent on junk purchases.
And, by and large, I think women have been suckered big time. All the money that’s put into fashion and cosmetics, for example. Whoever came up with the idea of people having seasons must have laughed all the way to the bank. Sure, certain skin tones look better with certain colour schemes, but does that really have to translate into buying a whole new wardrobe every year to compensate for fads? I wear the same twelve t-shirts year round and I don’t care if my socks don’t match. I only buy new shoes when I wear a pair out, too. No fuss in the morning, wondering what to wear, that’s my motto.
I got a kick out of this news report at MSNBC the other day, about how even celebrities are cutting back – only owning one house, wearing the same accessories twice, that kind of thing. Doing their part to save a dollar. When the rich get wary, you know there’s something to worry about, eh?
