The Butterfly effect

                                                 There was a child having dinner with his father and grand father. He asked his grand father about his childhood days and the old man started telling how carefree those days were. How he would play and enjoy all day long with least worries about his studies and marks and future. Then the child asked the same to his father. He got the same reply. No tutions, no homeworks, no pressure to score 100/100 etc. By this time the child finished his dinner and in the middle of his fathers nostalgia the moment he told his father that he is going to play, his father immediately changed colours. 'Playing will not fetch you anything. Its a waste of time. You must study very hard. Bla bla bla. Good marks will get you a good job and thence life will be set.' So whats this fear and insecurity all about? Whats so dreadful?  Whats this obssession for a good earning/job? How do someone define handsome salary? Whats its value? Is there any upper limit to it?What will be done with so much money earned? Where will all the money be flowing that we would need more and more money? Why so much stress and pressure in every family right upto a 2 yr old kid?

                                                I have always wondered how a few master minds can direct a whole economy. How they are able to take control of how a person would lead his/her life without ever have met them. I am talking about 'consumerism'. Today we have a product for everything. Right from our birth to death, from the time we get up till the time we sleep, there is something we need and hence a product for it. The market is overloaded with goods of all kinds. There are a few who directs what all products we should use and for how long etc. They make buying look so simple with all the lucrative offers and tricks. For the ones who cannot afford something, options like credit cards, EMI's are thrown. Do something/anything but buy. So we buy.

                                               Today every family member has their own choice of cosmetics, clothes, shoes, bags, stationeries, cell phones, packaged food stuffs, fresh juices, soft drinks and the list goes on. Every room needs a TV, AC, furnitures etc. The buyer decides what he/she needs to buy and hence greater independency comes in. This has been injected into consumers mentality with the help of advertisements that sharing/borrowing is just not an option as it will mean we are incapable of earning good and its embarassing to save money by borrowing when products are so cheap and easily available.

                                                Now once you have bought so much, how to ensure you keep on buying?. Simple. Show advertisements where style, fashion, status, masculinity, feminity is indicated. You just need to go get something new and in fashion. It doesnt matter whether a product is required or not. Now its advertised the product out of fashion and so we have to buy its latest replacement. Doesnt matter if its still in good working condition, exchange offers are there to get into the trap. Doesnt matter if so much resource goes to waste, keep buying. 

                                               Now coming back to the problem mentioned earlier. In most of our families their is only one male member who earns for his family.  With such growing demands from all in the family, he will definitely have a hard time fulfilling them still its managed somehow. Needless to say education, clothes, food, medication costs etc are there too which never deflates. He is now bound to think that he is incapable of running the family if he is not meeting the demands. It is this growing expense in a family that parents fear and hence they say to focus on studies and end up with a nice job. That converges to- money is top priority. Its like living to earn and not vice versa.

                                              There is more to it. When a person is surrounded with so much to keep him/her occupied like smart phones, TV and other personal possessions, mutual interactions decrease. 'Who cares what happens around' type mentality starts to form, strength of relations gets weak and ppl dont feel close quite obviously. No wonders our joint family structure is fast disintegrating. This independency has lead to all insecurity because at the time of dire need of money or emotional support, people hesitate to take help from relatives etc. Also because they have to maintain their independency status too that they need no support.

                                                At this moment comes offers of credit cards, insurance of all kinds because now a family/person is ready to understand how insecure and helpless they are or might become. So now dig deeper into the pocket and bring out some more money into insurance schemes . Ofcourse dont put faith in relatives and friends at the time of need because only insurance will be their and anyways they themselves are having hard time making themselves independent.

                                               It has never happened that price of a product has reduced. All thanks to advertisements by celebrities and the greed for more profits by companies which knows no end. So a major portion of the hard earned money from a huge population falls into the pockets of a couple who are already rich. Hence there can be no upper limit to what we should earn. Just keep on earning and keep on spending. This will only make rich even more rich and poor go more poor while we are pushed to the delusion of a luxurious easy enjoyable life where a majority of time of a common man actually goes in earning.

                                              I must also mention that so much of product manufacturing has taken its toll on our environment and is now in extruciating pain. So much of products all around also means a proportionate waste like a mere 165 bn $ of packaged food product went in waste in US.

                                              I might be sounding cynic. Consumerism has had its undeniable amazing advantages too but I think its having massive adverse effect everywhere on the globe including humans. Its possible to spread the endemic and then bring forth the cure.So much just at someone's whims. Citing a simple example- a soft drinks company produces gallons of drink, it brings about water shortage in the nearby areas and then they sell pure water to drink.

                                              Indeed a flatter of such master mind butterflies in one part of the world is bringing typhoons in the rest of the world.