Entitlement and H.GTV

[I don't really feel like bloggin tonight, but I'm determined to write every day, so here goes.]

I've been watching a bit of H.GTV since we got cable last year.  My older daughter enjoys watching the channel and has sometimes turned to it when there wasn't anything good on the cartoon network.  She especially enjoys watching the house-hunting shows, where people are looking for their first place or just for their next home.  I enjoy those shows too....but only to a point.

If you want to see a prime example of crass American capitalism combined with flagrant examples of rampant feelings of entitlement, watch "House Hunters" some night on H.GTV.  After a while, if you have any empathy for the state of impoverished people around the world, you may not be able to watch another minute.

We've watched many an episode where couple after couple would be looking at a house, and they would be alright with the property until they (gasp!) realized that the house did not have (gasp!) a master bathroom.  Gasp!  Or, they would walk into what the realtor told them would be the "master bathroom", and proceed to whine that it wasn't big enough.....when, in reality, some family in Haiti probably conducts their entire life in a hut smaller than that "master bathroom".   Or some couple would walk into the kitchen of the house they were looking at, and would immediately decide that it needed a complete re-do, because (again, gasp!) the appliances weren't stainless steel.  I mean, really, people???  Since when did people in this country come to feel like a house wasn't acceptable unless it had a master bathroom/suite, for pete's sake?  When B. and I were looking for a house, we certainly had some "wants" on our list - a two-car garage, at least 1.5 bathrooms, and air-conditioning or at least the option to install it.  And we didn't care if there was a "master suite" - mostly we just wanted a house we could afford in a better school district than the one we were in at the time.  At the moment, when I shower, I have Dora bath toys staring at me, so obviously our bathroom on the first floor is shared with our kids.  And you know what, that is perfectly fine with me, because it means I'm probably not a pretentious snob with misplaced feelings of entitlement, stuck cleaning the "master bath" in a house that is more than we can afford.

JB