On 24 Aug 2005 08:43:21 -0700, Sheldon wrote:

> I'm absolutely amazed at how so many even on this cooking
> group, especially on this cooking group, feel compelled to constantly
> remind the world of their impoverishedness, and almost always it's
> folks who are relatively young.

It's perspective, or lack of it. They are comparing themselves to
their parents or their friends parents and thinking that they should
be in a place it took their parents 30 years get to.

I think the best commercial on the air is one that tells the truth
about the "American Dream" and what it takes to appear to live it.
The man tells the viewer that he has a new car, big house, belongs to
the local country club... looks straight into the camera with a huge,
fake smile and says: "How do I do it? I'm in debt up to my eyeballs!"
That is a sad fact of life today. Too many people are living on their
credit cards and the people who aren't are wondering what's wrong with
THEM. The fact is that those who aren't living on their credit cards
are a whole lot better off. Maybe they don't have as many "things",
but they don't have as much debt, which is a major cause of stress.

We just had a murder suicide incident locally where Dad killed his
family and then himself. To the neighbors, they had it all... 2 kids
in private school and one child participating nationally in
gymnastics, but the financial stress was too much for the father and
he cracked under the pressure.