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I kind of agree. However, the ones that don't want to work or the ones who cannot afford an education still have open lines of credit. Profit is still possible on those people.
Our system of credit is precisely the problem. There has been a real 'boom' in credit recently, starting with the housing bubble, then student loans, and now sub-prime auto loans. People are in debt up to their necks, to the point where they literally cannot take on more debt (they can't service it). This Christmas season is falling flat, and those who still are buying, are doing so on credit. This can't last.
And yet, it MUST last. Our entire economy is built on ever-expansion of credit (debt). This is called "growth". Without further credit/debt, we cease to "grow". It is this lack of growth that has everybody scrambling to get ahead...or is it, just to keep up? They can't do either without more debt; but they can't do that, either.
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Originally Posted by valsteele
I hate big box stores like Walmart and Home Depot, I hate how American culture is taking over the planet to the point Australian teenagers are sounding like Californians and I hate how everyone is always stuck to their phones.
Geez, I'm not even 25 until next month.
Gosh, you've given me new hope for the younger generation!
I hate to be the debbie downer, but as a 24 year old female I feel that if I spend a lot of time on the "front porch" or wherever- I feel guilty because society has been pushing my whole life, "if you don't build up your skill-set and get out there and get that high paying job, you won't be a productive and worthy member of society!" So to build a better quality of life my parents bust their paychecks to make sure I get through public school and college, and then it's time to get out there and find that job just so I can survive. In elementary school it was a dream of mine to thrive- now it's kind of just down to survival. Sure I can grow a garden or raise animals, but how long till that becomes illegal? To society "front porch" time = welfare citizen, though I wish this weren't the case. I would have loved to have that experience.
It won't become illegal so don't worry about that. Just stay away from ultra liberal areas, which are actually fewer and far between as people are gaining more respect for self sufficiency. lol @ down to survival. This 20-30 y/o generation got effed. The newer kids like under 20 are too young to remember anything. As far as they're concerned, the effed up way it is now is normal and how it should always be, loll. All this portable communication crap cripples people ability to live a more honest relaxed life. And if the computers don't get them, the drugs/crime will.
As time goes by I find the "quality of life" is slowly eroding. I am not talking about things costing more, but cheapened or disappeared entirely. Family life and the kids' contact with their parents, another. What happened to front porches?
I say if things were so wonderful in the past, why did we do away with that?
I have a front porch. My small town is still a friendly place for the most part. Of course there are its issues.
Huh. I remember the good old days. We could go out and run around our neighborhood for hours without checking in. We could spend all night on Halloween going door to door for candy, and sit down when we were tired and eat some of it without it being checked a million times. We were secure in the knowledge that our roles and destinations were laid out in front of us and we had only to step into those roles.
We couldn't be gay. We couldn't be atheists. We could barely be African American. We couldn't be any other religion except Christian. Rape was blamed on the woman. Child molestation wasn't talked about. Being beaten by your husband was ignored. Being beaten by your parents was ignored (ask me how I know that). Any stranger walking into our neighborhood would have thought he had walked into a Norman Rockwell painting. But there were undercurrents. The woman down the street and her sons were beaten by their father. When she finally got divorced, he came back and poured sugar in her gas tank. Both myself and my friend from next door were put into foster homes when we were 14 because of family problems. My friend's older sister was impregnated by her father. My neighbor on the other side used to worry herself sick about having another baby. My aunt miscarried into the toilet and was relieved because she didn't want any more children.
Sorry, I don't think the good old days were all that good. Yes, there were some wonderful things about them, but there were some awful things about them too. And as for taking the time to slow down and smell the roses, well, look at it from Laura Ingalls Wilder's point of view. She wrote something back in the 20s, I think it was, about how she and her husband were wishing for the good old days of their parents' time, when their parents had time for visiting and good times. Laura and her husband felt that all they did any more was work, work, work and there was never time for anything else.
But as she put it when she reflected on it, there are still 24 hours in a day and the days and nights are as long as they have ever been.
The point is, maybe it's not the lack of hours in a day, or our circumstances that cause us to be constantly on the go, nor technology, nor the internet, nor anything else that has us so stressed out. We do it to ourselves. And if we want things to slow down, we're the ones that have to take the steps to do so, each in our own lives.
Yes, the good old days weren't always so great for everyone.
My mother always told me that she only wanted 2 or 3 kids, but in those days, no birth control and you didn't say no to your spouse. But we weren't unloved.
She did tell us that she and her SIL would jump off chairs to try to dislodge a pregnancy. At least she was honest with us and didn't sugar coat life in the old days. She said if she had been born a man, marriage would have been way down her list of things to do.
She is a bright happy 90 year old, just tells it like it is.
As a guy who works in the medical device industry, and who has had serious surgery, I'm glad some technology is advancing at a rapid pace. If only we could s-l-o-w down and enjoy life a little more while young, this would be good. Stress is monumental in my industry and its a race to the bottom on some days.
I'm glad you chimed in. Some of us that long for the past, when life was slower, forget that the youth today have pressures on them that we can't understand. If your child isn't using a computer by kindergarten...well, then they are considered behind in some places. There are many more pressures and worries for the next generation that weren't there when we were growing up.
Thank you Bailey for reminding me that I can't compare my ideals to the realities of growing up today.
That's true. In fact I heard a psychologist say this to Tony Soprano in a 6th season episode, about Tony's son A.J. Just because many kids appear lazy doesn't really mean they are. They need constant motivation and support to try new things so they will be happy choosing the right one. This doesn't mean throwing them in a particular field of study expecting them to do what you tell them just out of fear that they can't work as hard and be as lucky as the generation before.
They still make those. A bunch of new houses near me with porches. Or you mean you don't see anybody sitting on theres
In the burbs you can drive by about 100 or more porches (more like 500) before you see one with someone sitting on it, lol. In the summer time the rate slightly increases.
You have to make your own life great. Do not let society dictate the outcome. As long as your not living off the government there is nothing wrong with sitting out on your porch. People need to take a moment to relax, that way your mentally stronger for the next day.
Six little words were the mantra of my youth. "What do you want to do?". After-school TV - Dennis the Menace, I Dream of Jeannie, and I Love Lucy reruns were the extent of my electronics. My ride until high school was my bicycle. There were days I was certain I was going to die of boredom. While reading this thread, I realized I never heard those word from my two boys, both in their early 20's.
My children of the electronic leash never wanted for something to do. Game consoles to game boys to iPhone, have raised my kids. The internet taught my oldest to write code and run a large agency computer network (lives in DC).They don't know what boredom is like......the never slow down, never turn off.
But these millennials do understand creature comforts. Good for them....they'll need them if they are always " on."
As time goes by I find the "quality of life" is slowly eroding. I am not talking about things costing more, but cheapened or disappeared entirely. Family life and the kids' contact with their parents, another. What happened to front porches?
Yes, I have felt it in my soul for sometime.. which has affected me. I don't see this generally being discussed- the speed to which things have become, the focus on "having more" and superficiality; the disconnection many have to others, whether due to technology or something else.
I would enjoy sitting on a front porch (in a comfy rocking chair) often, overlooking peaceful scenery and hearing just the sounds of nature, maybe alone or with another, coversing, singing together, with pets relaxing close by...
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