My seven-year-old son had written down an enormous figure with too many zeroes and looking slyly into my eyes asked if I would like to have so much money. �Of course,� - I knocked without hesitation, �-of course I would�.

�We could buy everything we wanted,� - my son continues to dream, �- any toy, computer games, children�s encyclopedia, a monkey and what not�� The child growing in the age of consumerism, he understands quite clear what he is - eager - and already realizes that money is one of the best ways to meet his needs. My lovely little consumer prefers children�s supermarkets where toys and books lie in an attractive order on the shelves and he does not want to play with cheap Chinese toys bought at an open-air market because they are harmful and get broken too quick; he also studies carefully the expiry date at juice and chocolate packages. He knows the rules of consumption as he regularly watches TV. His needs are clear and concrete.

And what about myself? What should I do if I had this incredible imagined sum? I thought about it. Well, first of all a new big (at least two-storeyed) house with comfortable furniture in a modern and cozy interior came into my head; then a car (two would be better � for me and for my husband); traveling abroad�

Next, without a doubt, a total replenishment of my wardrobe according to the latest fashion tendencies. Expensive Italian clothes and footwear, British wool, French perfume, Swiss watch, jewelries, excellent hairstyle and ideal make-up!!! Women would envy and as for men they would admire and � But stop if it goes this way I myself will become an object of consumption because a pretty, stylish and looking-one-million-dollars woman is supposed to be a good addition to a successful man.

Success and self-realization� �Study, develop, improve yourself and you would be successful� � our teachers and tutors say.

�Build your career, obtain professionalism and competence to perfection and you would be successful� � the well-known psychologists and managers advise.

�Imagine your dream, locate pheng shu talismans in the right places, always look and act in your best direction and you would be successful� � the psychics repeat.

In numerous magazines and TV shows famous businessmen and celebrities share with us the secrets of their success and all its attributes such as a world-wide fame, a lot of money and the possibility to consume everything they want.

We read and listen carefully to all these people and try to do our best and be successful too. We become nervous if our friends or colleagues manage this task much better than we do. (The Vanity Fair of life works twenty-four hours a day and anyone interested is welcome.)

Success, success, success�. Why do we need it so much? Perhaps, one of the answers is - because the success gives us recognition, money (though we may say money in its turn also can make us successful) and opportunity to materialize all our wishes. It seems a strong desire to satisfy all our needs (biological, material and spiritual) is always a great source of progress. At any historical period the human being tries to meet his needs in food, warmth and dwelling. Society developed, improved, searched and found new ways and solutions to make our lives more easy, comfortable and pleasant. But nowadays it is not enough just to put on something to feel warm. This something should be up-to-date, beautiful and be produced by a well-known firm. High technology and effective production provides us with a great amount of the modern goods we need and demand (or maybe we only believe we need them).

My grandmother who is eighty now, looking through my wardrobe always sighs. �There are so many pretty good things you don�t wear�. �Because they are unfashionable already�, - I answer. The elder generation hardly understands why we so often change clothes, furniture, cars and cell-phones (as for the last, statistics confirms they are changed at least once a year). Mass culture and advertising regularly suggests what we have to eat, to drink and to wear, how we should live, work and communicate in order to be adequate and up to the contemporary life standards. And we consume all these praised goods and services and then not long after easily changed them for new ones (practically the same in functions) which are also insistently praised. Every car can drive us where we need to go, every cell-phone can connect with whom we want to talk, every TV-set can show the latest news and every coat will protect us in nasty weather. Nevertheless people prefer fashionable and prestigious brands and labels. It is not bad but there are some things we are not able to buy for all money of the world.

My old granny often says, �When I got married with your grandfather we had only a small room with a table and a bed and in spite of our after-war poverty we lived in concord and were very happy!� �Because you were young and you loved each other, granny!�

And, as for us, is love enough to be happy? And does the love still exist in its true sense? And what is the true sense of it? Don�t we forget in this consumerism race such human values as kindness, love, faith, fidelity, honesty, dignity, readiness to help?

Freud taught us that sex runs the world. I am not going to argue with the prominent psychologist. Perhaps that is somehow right, especially if we would take males into consideration. But every normal female becoming a mother begins to love her baby much more than herself. And the health and the wellbeing of the child (as well as a strong and friendly family) become the priority to her.

When we love and are loved sincerely it doesn�t matter what we have for a meal today � bread and milk or an old white wine and fresh oysters. People cry and suffer from treachery and adultery in the same way whether they are at a 17-square meters� room in a provincial town or at a luxurious house at the seashore. In the same way deception hurts those who wear expensive Dior or Armani clothes and those who wear modest dresses.

From century to century there is a constant conflict between parents and children and still our mothers and fathers are the most significant and dear people in our life. Most of us need friends and want them to understand and support us. Many people work hard not only for a high earning career but because they really like their job and want to be helpful for people and society. And besides advertising and mass culture there is also the culture � art, literature, music, good music, good books, good films�

�Mummy will you buy me new toy soldiers tomorrow?� � My son interrupted my thoughts. �I will�. �And will you tell me a new fairy-tale before I go to bed?� �Of course, my kitten�. �Mummy, you know, you are the best mom in the world � the most beautiful, the most clever woman!!!� I smiled, �Perhaps, only for my son�� But it is wonderful that in this age of consumerism we save things we can afford without any fee � family, an opportunity to be children and parents, love, care of each other. And what about the advertised subjects? We�ll buy all of them definitely when we have an enormous sum with too many zeroes.