Is the whole "Financial Crisis" the end of our obscene consumption?

[58robbo]

Originally Posted by Pilot1

The real problem, a lot of greenies, especially the vocal ones are already unemployed. That's why they have time to protest!

Without increasing consumption and demand for products, our economy will collapse. It may already be happening.

the issue with a consumption based economy is that eventually you run out of resources. the problem i have with the existing system is the way it encourages us to spend. imo it encourages us to spend heavily on consumables (instant gratification) because of their low prices and it discourages spending on services (care, education, research) because of their high prices. this comes about because of a misallocation of human resources to wall street away from healthcare, edu...., .......! it also relies heavily on foreign production.

[DixieSherry]

Wow, times have changed. Trying to figure out when I have first saw this spending frizzy start to happen. I believe in the mid 80's. that we referred to people who wanted to buy everything in sight and not want to do without, "yippie generation". In the 90's is when products started to become less expensive, i.e. =microwaves, telephones, televisions, cameras, computers and by 2001 is when the dollar stores starting popping up.

When I grew up in the 50's and 60's times were different. People made due with what little they had. You could park a car in the garage. Back then, people usually had one car. Children had school clothes and play clothes. One never played in their school shoes. Fast food restaurants were not prevalent and families did not go out to eat often. People stayed at home to eat.