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Ok, the piece following my comments is something I found on a wall in an office I was working at on the Georgia Tech campus and is essentially a fluff piece that moves towards emotion but it also happens to hit a few points that struck me in a much broader sense.
There are now more registered cars in America than drivers, homes are considerably larger while family sizes have shrank, from 1980 to 2000, the average American household has seen a decline in personal savings of 84% and an increase in personal indebtedness a staggering 800+%. (sorry I no longer have the source) Children enter the workforce later yet stay in the workforce longer.
Is this just a culture of consumerism of does this say something deeper about the American perspective?
We have taller buildings and shorter tempers
Wider freeways, yet narrow viewpoints
We spend more but have less
We buy more but enjoy it less
We have bigger homes and yet smaller families
We have more conveniences yet less time
We have more degrees, yet less sense.
More knowledge, but less judgment.
More experts, but more problems.
More medicine, but less wellness.
We have multiplied out possessions, but reduced our values.
We have learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We have added years to our life, not life to years.
We have been all the way to the moon and back but have trouble crossing the street
to meet our neighbors
We've conquered outer space, but not our inner soul.
We have cleaned up the air, but polluted the mind.
We have higher incomes, bur lower morals.
We have become long on quantity, but short in quality.
These are the times of tall men and short character
Steep profits and shallow relationships
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce
of fancier houses but broken homes
It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom
When you can choose to make a difference, or just choose not to vote Ron Paul.
Sorry, could not resist adding to the end. suck it up
Last edited by TnHilltopper; 09-18-2007 at 11:00 AM..
Reason: spelling
If you put your money in a standard savings account it will decrease in value because the interest rate is less than the actual inflation. If you invest in a house larger than you need with a mortgage you can barely afford and minimal down payment you will (up till recently) recieve a really decent return on your investment if you are willing to move every 5 years or so. This is what has driven the speculative market in housing and to a lesser degree equities. Both are unsupportable bubbles and are about to burst big time.
Talk by economists about a low savings rate is a canard. American "save" by owning a home. A savings account offers much lower rate of return than home appreciation over any given decade. The supply of homes is chronically below the demand, so owning a home is easily a rational replacement for a savings account.
"Consumerism" is a by-product of economic affluence, the latter of which everyone would agree is better than the alternative. When the electorate becomes primarily consumers rather than citizens, then the political process suffers and we get the string of poorly qualified elected officials that we've seen for a couple of decades.
Last edited by ParkTwain; 09-18-2007 at 01:48 PM..
If you put your money in a standard savings account it will decrease in value because the interest rate is less than the actual inflation. If you invest in a house larger than you need with a mortgage you can barely afford and minimal down payment you will (up till recently) recieve a really decent return on your investment if you are willing to move every 5 years or so. This is what has driven the speculative market in housing and to a lesser degree equities. Both are unsupportable bubbles and are about to burst big time.
The people who will suffer are the greedy and the foolish. I have no pity for real estate speculators. "Flip this house", indeed.
Everyone should study Latin. Start by memorizing caveat emptor.
Saving in American society is not longer important- debt is. If you have your money in savings you are loosing money as GegW said above.
Today the FED lowered rates, caving into Wall Street tycoons, CNBC, and others whose wealth is more important to the little people. Gold is over $730 an oz, oil nearly $82 a barrel. Commodities are soaring, inflation will eat this economy alive very soon.
Gold is over $730 an oz, oil nearly $82 a barrel. Commodities are soaring, inflation will eat this economy alive very soon.
The price of gold and oil haven't risen. It's the value of the dollar that has gone down. It takes more worthless dollars to buy gold and oil - as well as food and a lot of other things.
The price of gold and oil haven't risen. It's the value of the dollar that has gone down. It takes more worthless dollars to buy gold and oil - as well as food and a lot of other things.
Perhaps you are right- I will agree with you on the value of the $- it is worthless, and the Federal reserve which is supposed to keep it stable has destroyed it.
Talk by economists about a low savings rate is a canard. American "save" by owning a home. A savings account offers much lower rate of return than home appreciation over any given decade. The supply of homes is chronically below the demand, so owning a home is easily a rational replacement for a savings account.
Yes but then or now, people have owned homes which may be an investment but I would not call them, "savings" for the mere fact they are not liquid without taking out a home equity loan with interest. Your child needs braces and you are strapped, so if you get a home equity loan to pay for it, then you are in pretty bad shape. What kind of savings is it when your home value declines. As to the supply of homes being behind demand, I would suggest you look on most city streets and take note of all those for rent and for sale signs.... they are giving them away.
For grins, take a look at European home plans and notice how much smaller they are. Take a look at the average home plan in America from 1960,70,80,etc... and notice how much they have bloated. We went from the 1970 town car to the pinto and then back to the navigator. America truly has become a nation of obesity and I am not just talking about ones personal weight.
I guess I don't even have a point other than I just don't understand this strange desire that so many have to collect crap, tons of it, piles of it and stuffing it into huge homes, carting it around in pigmobiles as though this somehow defines the success of ones life.
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