Living the American Dream isn’t what it used to be.  There was a time when people from all over the world gave up everything they knew and found their way to the United States in search of the American Dream.  Our streets were “paved with gold” and everyone was equal insomuch as they all had a shot at the brass ring.  To breathe the free air, to earn an honest buck and to feel safe and free from oppression; that was the American dream.  “Was” the American Dream - but it is no more.

Today it’s all about consuming.  Whoever has the most, the best and/or the newest is deemed a “winner”.  Where it used to be the hard-worker who pulled himself up from obscurity to become wealthy or at least well respected, now it’s simply a race to the most, best and newest.  Our disposable society doesn’t bother repairing things anymore, they just replace them.  Credit cards give consumers more spending power than they can truly afford, pushing many people over the brink to a point from which they cannot easily return.  Tiny “minimum payments” only lend to the idea that you have more spending power than you really do.  And the credit card companies are determined to perpetuate that false line of thinking.

“I want it all and I want it now”.  That’s one of the lines from the rock band Queen’s song of the same name.  It’s also the song that’s playing in the background of a commercial for Chase Credit Cards.  In this commercial, some moron’s “better half” finally decides that the idiot is right and they need a new TV, which sets into motion a chain of events that leads to a scene in which Mr. Stupid is calling Chase to determine just how much he can spend on this nifty new television.  But it’s the commercial’s tagline that caught my eye: “Chase What Matters”.

So, in reflection, a guy buys a TV with a credit card while the Materialistic American Motto of “I want it all, I want it now” screeches in the background and the announcer tells us all to “Chase what matters”.  Am I alone in being offended by the message Chase Bank is trying to convey?  Am I alone in interpreting their message to mean, “We can provide you with the means to purchase material goods, which is truly what matters”?  How else can I construe what they’re saying?  What other message could there be?

When I think about “what matters”, I think about my, my wife’s and my children’s health and well-being.  If someone were to ask, “What really matters to you”, I certainly wouldn’t answer, “A new plasma TV and the ability to purchase one right now”.  What kind of a society does Chase think we are?

They think we’re a society of buyers, purchasers and consumers – and they’re unquestionably on the mark.  We’re all soon to receive checks from Uncle Sam under the guise of a “Stimulus Package” that’s supposed to help revitalize the US economy through our buying stuff.  That’s the plan in a nutshell – here’s some free money, go buy stuff and that will make it all better.  This plan’s only hope of working, however, is if we actually DO buy stuff.  With the current economic situation, it doesn’t look like most people will be running out to the mall with check in hand.  If your mortgage company was knocking down your door, threatening to foreclose, what would YOU spend your check on?  If your credit card debts were swallowing you whole, what would you do with your “stimulus money”?  Paying off bills isn’t a part of the stimulus plan and will do very little to help the economy.  I even read of a senator somewhere advising people against paying down their debt and “splurging a little” on themselves – after all, they deserve it in times like these.  What?  WHAT??  Has this guy lost his mind?  No, he just doesn’t have the same kind of financial concerns that most Americans do.  Like air and water, money is something you just don’t think much about unless you’re running out.

And far too many of us are running out because of the “I want it all and I want it now” mentality.  Consumers across the country overspend, overextend and then suffer a crisis like losing their job.  But Chase feels we should all “Chase what matters”, i.e. “Buy more crap”.  In fact, their new ad campaign is costing them $70 million just to stuff that message in all our eager-to-purchase-anything faces.  Perhaps if they applied that money toward their customers’ balances, it would prompt people to buy things more than just demanding we do so.

Remember what President Bush told us all to do after the 9/11 attacks?  He told us to continue as always and consume.  At the time, he said it would help the economy but here we are six-and-a-half years later and we’re being told the same thing: consume and it will help the economy.  I understand the principal behind the idea, but I don’t think it’s quite that simple.  You can’t expect trouble with the national economy to be eased much through some minor spending – it just doesn’t work like that.  Maybe toughening up on those from whom we import oil would help a little: “lower your prices or we buy elsewhere”.  Of course, that is far too simplistic of an approach and it would require some serious sacrifices on the part of the American people and their government, so it’s easier for the powers to just mail out checks and cross their fingers.

So, what are you doing with your check, paying off bills or blowing it on a new home theater?  I might go out to dinner somewhere nice, like Denny’s or HoJo’s, but I’ll probably just put the rest of it under my mattress for safe keeping.  After all, you never know when we might again hear the Presidential Call to be good Americans and consume – or, in other words, “Chase What Matters”.