The state of the Union is crap. 20% of the country is doing OK. 1% is doing fantastically. 0.001% is doing so well it’s criminal, literally. They don’t own everything yet but they do own the politicians, judges, regulators, academics, and reporters. So they’re getting there. The other 80%, the rubes, the muppets, the serfs, are mired in an undeclared, ongoing depression.
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ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for sharing
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Life is hard and then we die.
ReplyDeleteCompare life now with the great depression, or the 1880's, or the 1950's.
Yes, things can be better, things should be better.
But nobody HAS to have a five hundred dollar computer that fits in their pocket and costs them seventy to a hundred dollars a month in communications charges. Or internet access, five hundred channels on wide screen TVs in every room, two cars in the garage of a three story house and a kitchen full of all the latest stainless steel appliances.
A lot of people these days think that once they graduate they should have it made. All the toys, money for nothing and chicks for free. But it's always been hard to build a life, hard to build a nest egg.
At some point in the seventies or eighties people suddenly decided that they should be able to have everything and have it right NOW.
But it's just not so. It's not normal for us to be spending a large portion of our income on entertainment (TV and Internet) and cell phones which are replaced every three or four years, and car payments and huge houses.
All this is relatively new behavior that has been sold to us via the TV that is costing ever more money every year, and the content which is appearing on ever more devices every year.
I'm not saying there needs to be changes in the US government and the corporate structure that pays CEO's absurdly high amounts and screws over the worker at every chance. But I am saying the consumer culture has gotten out of hand, and many think it's normal.
It's not normal and it's not healthy. At least not for the consumer.
At some point in the seventies or eighties people suddenly decided that they should be able to have everything and have it right NOW.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's true.
But it's just not so. It's not normal for us to be spending a large portion of our income on entertainment (TV and Internet) and cell phones which are replaced every three or four years, and car payments and huge houses.
Except for huge houses, which very few people have, no on in fact spends a large portion of their income on these things.
But I am saying the consumer culture has gotten out of hand, and many think it's normal.
Meh. I don't see consumer culture getting "out of hand." I take it that other people are doing things you don't like. So what?