5/1/17 Whatever Happened To Greed?

    What happened to greed, I remember it used to denote fun.  When you are little you want this and you want that, sometimes you cried enough and boom you would actually get your way.  If that isn't enough, it was also the fuel of the American way.  If I heard someone got a new 4x4 truck, it would quickly become I want a new 4x4 with a sun roof and leather seats.  Houses were getting bigger and bigger because of greed.  We all wanted houses with more and more options and abilities.
    I can say I have not changed, I still want everything.  I hate that I can't just go and buy say matching Rolex watches for Wife and I.  Last year, I was showing pretty good discipline until my brother went and bought a fully loaded F-150.  This thing had pretty much every bell and whistle.  The only way to beat him and assure I had the nicer truck was to go buy an F-250.  It is a Ford truck, but it is a slightly larger, stronger truck.  Even though my truck is only a year old, hearing that my mom and dad just went and got themselves a new F-150 makes me long for the days of being out there on the lots looking for my next vehicle.  Although they do consume a good portion of our salaries, our vehicles are pretty important as they allow us to be mobile and free.  I love that my folks are still capable of doing what they want, they decided they wanted a new truck and went out and got exactly what they wanted.  When I talked to my mom Saturday, the hardest part was deciding what color to choose, and they went with a grey color, mostly because my brother and I already have black trucks.
    To me, this is one of the biggest question marks in my head.  All through the 90's and 2000's, there was tremendous growth here in Austin.  Big, bigger, and biggest were our choices for upgrade houses.  Personally, we went from a 1200sq ft house to one that is around 4000sq ft.  For a second before the market crapped out, I was even thinking we would make the move to a 6000-7000 sq ft house, but everything seemed to go away.  Nowadays, there are only a few houses going up.  Most of these houses are smaller in square footage but still bigger in cost which I say F*** that!
    The new idea of tiny houses goes against everything American.  We are built on having a little greed coursing through our veins.  We're supposed to want more than the previous version of ourselves, so dinky little 300 sq ft houses do not compute.  The only way I see us considering buying a tiny house is if they start offering small lots we can afford along the lake or coast to park said tiny houses and use them as vacation or getaway houses on the weekends or summers.  Owning two or three houses does have a greedy vibe and that gets us back to feeling American, so in that situation, I could be convinced to participate in the tiny house movement, I already have the truck to move it around, but I think us owning an RV over the last 18 years already has us owning a tiny house.