In 2009, Bank of America asked 1,000 adults (18 and older) what they would do if they were given $1,000. Of those surveyed:

• Forty-eight percent said they would put it all in a general savings account.
• Twenty-seven percent said they would use it to pay off credit card debt.
• Twelve percent said they would put it in their child's educational fund.
• Ten percent said they would use it for health care expenses.

My friend Ashish came from Northern India to visit me in Chicago. We were eating at Gino's Pizzeria one day and ran into a youth pastor I know, along with his youth group. Just returned from Central America, they were debriefing. "So what did you learn from your trip?" Ashish asked. Student after student obsessed about the poverty of "those poor people." After they left, Ashish said, "Why do they ...

According to New York Times columnist Tom Standage, "Americans are squandering billions of dollars on bottled water." Outsold only by soda, thirsty Americans consume an average of 24 gallons of bottled water annually. "And it's no bargain. In fact, a gallon of Evian or Poland Spring costs more than a gallon of gasolinewhich explains how we're spending $10 billion a year on the stuff." The motivation ...

A 2007 study by Money magazine insists Americans are better off than they were years ago:

• In 21 years, our net worth has doubled. The median family net worth in 1983 was $49,700; in 2004 it was $99,300.
  
  
• We are spending 25 percent more than we were 32 years ago. Consumer spending per household in 1973 was $37,900; in 2005 it was $47,900.
  
  
• Despite the average family being smaller, the size of our homes has increased about one-third in 33 years. The average size of a new single-family home has climbed from 1,700 square feet in 1973 to 2,500 square feet in 2006.
  

Forget your Members Only jacket. At Vintage21, a church in Raleigh, North Carolina, it's Owners Only. The church is eliminating the concept of membership entirely in favor of what they believe is a more appropriate description for the body of Christ: ownership.

Gyms and clubs have members. Vintage21 contends that these memberships are "painless to obtain and even easier to discard." Ownership, on the ...

Kids have a lot more money than they used to. They are also exposed to a great deal more advertising, not only in front of the television and computer at home, but even at school, through Channel One. As a result, children as young as 18 months can identify a brand, and their desires influence how adults spend billions of dollars.

Psychiatrist Juliet Schor, author of Born to Buy: The Commercialized ...

The following warnings were found on consumer products:

On a Duraflame fireplace log: "Caution—Risk of Fire."

On a Batman costume: "Warning: Cape does not enable user to fly."

On a bottle of hair coloring: "Do not use as an ice cream topping."

On a cardboard sun shield for a car: "Do not drive with sun shield in place."

On a portable stroller: "Caution: Remove infant before folding for storage."

Author Bill Bryson noticed many changes when he returned to America after spending 20 years overseas. One observation he made involved the amount of choices available to the American consumer:

Abundance of choice not only makes every transaction take ten times as long as it ought to, but in a strange way actually breeds dissatisfaction. The more there is, the more people crave, and the more they crave, ...

The following financial facts came from a June 7, 2002 Federal Reserve statistical release:

Consumer credit debt stands at a record $1.6 trillion.

Consumer debt including home mortgages is $7 trillion.

Debt is double what it was in 1990.

Over the last 10 years, debt has increased 123 percent.

The average family spends $400 more than it earns each year.

Personal consumer debt is increasing at a rate of ...

In a sermon on truth-telling, Bill Hybels recounts a story told by Brennan Manning in his book The Ragamuffin Gospel.

Brennan Manning quite courageously admits that 25 years ago, he had a drinking problem. He voluntarily entered a 28-day treatment program. Early on in the treatment program they had to sit in a circle with a leader and tell the truth to themselves, and to the other people in the group, ...