You mean the power boat won’t lead to self-actualization?

The entire April issue of Vanity Fair is excellent and well worth every minute it will take to read.  Literally every article concerning the economic crisis is stupendous, but I especially liked this one about the elastic conception of the American Dream.  Money quotes:

It is clear that our economy is undergoing a systemic change not seen since the 1930s and early 1980s.  We are seeing the pendulum shift away from the deregulation-at-all-costs gospel of Reagan/Rand/Greenspan and shifting to a more sensible, fulfilling approach to daily life.  In the long run, America(ns) will be much better off with higher savings rates, less reliance on credit, a diminished financial sector, and a more balanced trade regime.  (Reformed health care, improved education, less suburban sprawl would also be nice, but I don’t want to get my hopes up.)  I consider myself very fortunate to have spent time in very poor parts of the world, and those experiences helped me appreciate just how comfortable our life is.  When you think about it, we don’t need half of what we own.  We own it because of our insecurities, incessant marketing, hedonism, discounting the future, and a poor understanding of compound interest.  Instead, we’ve succumbed to so much upper-middle class media (and they to the upper class kind) that we think to be happy we have to take vacations, own big televisions, have 3 bathrooms, and own a nice ride.  Pursuing these material goals, we’ve lost sight of our interpersonal connections.  No rich person dies happy if they die without friends.

As a young analyst at a consulting firm, I can look to senior managers and partners – people 10-20 years ahead of me – and pretty much see my life in front of me.  Materially, it would be fantastic: nice hotels, frequent flier points, living in nice suburbs, and eating well.  But they also put in 60 hour weeks and send e-mails on Sunday afternoons.  Unless I am saving the world, that is not the life I want.  But it is the life we’ve been convinced we have to lead.  Give me a small apartment, a healthy family, quality food, a nice city, and social activities, and I’m happy.  We do not need 42″ LCD 1080p televisions, C320s, or Gucci wallets to be happy, but we have convinced ourselves that we do.  In the process, we decided that we could get all this on a $50/month minimum credit card payment.  The irony: in pursuing material happiness, we have made it harder to reach.