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It's a line that gives you permission to buy things you don't need, at prices you can't afford...
Mentally, I always answer to myself, "What I deserve is to live a debt-free, uncomplicated life," and I pass on purchasing the product/service/gadget/gizmo.
I wish more people would answer the same to themselves
What I always love seeing too is that people give more thought to a pair of shoes then a purchase of a major durable good (like a car), how much is in their budget, or even how much they save for retirement. It's like overwhelming to people to deal with monetary issues, I've heard more people say "It's too complicated" then "This is my future, I need to plan for it and learn about this".
The more the government takes "our" money and doles it out as it sees fit, the less likely we are to want to give to others. When the government gets out of the charity business (and the redistribution of wealth!) the more likely we'll all be to get back to individual generosity.
If your talking about Obama, he isn't even in office yet. So he hasn't redistributed anything. If the goverement doesn't come in now and try to do something, Things will get alot worse. I do not agree with throwing money to the fat cats on wall street either. I want them to help the people. The ones they got the money from to start with.
Awesome post or rather rant Babsmom! I'm not going to go into ethics or religion here as that would be a endless discussion, but I wanted to flip the question instead and point something out. We live in a democratic-capitatlistic society. One where everyone has the freedom to voice their opinion - DEMOCRACY and one where everyone has the ability to acquire - CAPITALISM. Though I know it's a lil more complex than that but lets just keep it at that for now.
1) So everyone comes together to voice their opinion, let's say an assembly of senators in the greek forum like the good old days ... it's a SLOW AGONIZING process, ok, but they then do come to a consensus for what's best for everyone, maybe not the best consensus but the best consensus for everyone.
2) Like-wise in a capitalistic viewpoint, it seems as if everyone has to kick someone down in order to move up the ladder, some call it the rat race or a dog eat dog world .... but it makes people more competitive and in result people work harder and people study harder, not exactly a bad thing.
3) You ever see the Marines commercial where one boy climbs up a rock and BAM a bolt of lightning hits him and he becomes "The Few, the Proud, the Marine!" In fact Marines are better classified as battalions of regiments, but the fact is many in our individualistic society are betting on individual matters such as experience, leadership or a scholarship to join that of a group-oriented society such as the military.
Ok I might have lost you here or you might have gotten the point. The point is a invidualistic society unfortunately does not function without some sort of collectivity. A society is not just the place we work then go home and go to bed, we also interact and play in this society, thus we do have to be concerned about others, what goes around does come around. An individualistic society on the other hand is very ideal for the common good, it's our competitive nature to compete with others. The question is how do we make this competition about goodness such as helping others rather than kicking someone down. Culture (or rather counter-culture depending how you view it). We don't understand how powerful good-will is in a competitive state, in fact imagine people flocking to help others. It's not we haven't seen this before, imagine the freedom riders in the 60s, humans that risked their lives for their neighbors, without profit, just for the good-will of humanity. With the appropriate channel and the help of mass-media we can really instill a strong sense of charity in our culture. It's more about how to harness and cultivate this individualism for good charity, than it is to rid of this individualism as that is not going to happen.
The rich have embodied in America to have greater prosperity. I think the $30,000 car/$250,0000 house thing is ridiculous too, but some people do what it takes to have those things and there is nothing we can do to change that. It's called freedom you dopes. It's a free country; people can buy as much as they want if they have the income to do so.
The rich have embodied in America to have greater prosperity. I think the $30,000 car/$250,0000 house thing is ridiculous too, but some people do what it takes to have those things and there is nothing we can do to change that. It's called freedom you dopes. It's a free country; people can buy as much as they want if they have the income to do so.
So I can buy a new Volvo XC90 for my wifes birthday
'What is the deal with everyone in America being so materialistic and selfish?'
REPLY: The turn took place (in a very predominant way) around circa 1960 which is roughly the same time America went from a nation whos values, morals, and ethics were based on foundational Christian principles to that of Humanism / Post Modernism . When a nation chooses to pretend the personal Creator doesnt exist / or isnt necessary ,in addition to not wanting absolute moral laws to live according to... while at the same time having a Mega-Media constantly reinforcing philosophies such as YOU owe it to yourself, YOU deserve a break today, YOU need to get all the gusto out of life that you can, things bring happiness, things are a sign of success, indulge to your hearts content, sexual immorality is fun, et al, ad nauseum ... the populus starts to make SELF their 'god' and their daily lives essentially become a feeding-frenzy on materialism and hedonism. It is the love for money and the love for sexual hedonism ,in particular, that are bringing America to ruin ; the desire for Self-absorption with its many sub-categories are causing Americas implosion with the recent economic travesty due to greed being a prize example. The current statistics of 33 circulating STD's (of which 2 are fatal) carried among some 40,000,000 adult Americans ....and 95% of all abortions being attributed to casual sexual hedonism gone further wrong ... are Americas greatest shame ; in the name of Selfism it is now okay to give your own developing flesh and blood a death sentence --- the direct consequence of people wanting to live any way they feel like it . Americas 'freedoms' have been willfully twisted to its detriment , and most people actually believe they are entitled to live like this. GOD-lessness equals anarchy.
Bob Dylan was quoted with saying when Time Magazine came out with their "Is God Dead?" issue: Are they absolutely positive that God is dead? Sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt? Because if they're not, this is an incredibly irresponsible thing to print! I mean, can you imagine if you were God, seeing something like this? How would you feel? An important magazine like Time Magazine should know better.
If you consider it, that's right when everything started going to blazes.
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