Its interesting in this country(and probably others), that we're all trying to get MORE (money). A million isn't enough anymore, it was a decade ago or so. Now we can't be happy or retire unless we have 2, 3, or 4 million so that we can "retire" comfortably and do.....? The CEO's have to make hundreds of millions of dollars insted of concentrating on making good, reliable products that are safe and durable. With all the masterminds and PhD's we produce we can't even fix some of societies basic problems: eldercare, healthcare, education just to name a few. We have(are) breeding an individualistic, me, me, me society.
We work feverishly to get to THAT point and in the meantime back at the ranch, we're taking more antianxiety drugs, antidepressants, sleep meds, antihypertensives to just deal with all the problems of daily life just to get to THAT point. Our kids are getting obese, early age diabetes and alcoholics and I might add are competing with the adults for the antidepressants.
The one "good" thing with the youngfolks is, the teenage pregnancy rate is down, not necessarily sexual activity. There's a HDTV in every room of the 3-4 story house (megahouse) so the family unit is disintegrating.............I was just wondering with all the emphasis on getting to THAT financial point what's happening to US as a society?
I'm interested in others' constructive thoughts/opines.
I hope I posted this in the appropriate topic section, if not feel free to move me.
Wow. Ferco's post really brought out some strong reactions. My take on his post is completely different from most of the people reacting to it. I think it's quite a stretch to interprete this post to mean an attack on making money, individualism and financial security. I see this post as an attempt to refocus us on what's important in life. He is correct; we are so focused on getting more and more but yet we are stressed out, disatisfied with our lives, have unrealistic expectations of how we should look and how much we should possess, drugged up with anti-depressents and are less happy than our grand-parents. What is life if you have all the money in the world but yet you are miserable and not contented? How much does a human being need to make them comfortable? Are our expectations too high and leave us anxious? At what point do you become contented and happy? Study after study proves that once humans achieve a certain comfort level no additional amount of money will bring you more happiness. The law of diminishing returns take over. For many people, having more and more material things is a life long quest. Should we focus more on making society a better place by helping our fellow citizens and giving back more of our time, spend more time with our family and focus less on material things?
I have travelled widely and I can say that based on my observations, Americans are the most insecure and money obsessed culture and part of that is because people in the us are truely on their own. If you become ill, God help you unlike all other developed countries. In the developing world, the expectations are much lower and people are happy despite the great poverty some of them suffer (I am not talking starvation here; it's hard to be happy if you're starving). With all the material things we possess, we consistently rank low on quality of life in this country. The countries that pay higher taxes, have less consumption and care more about the well being of their citizens, seem to do better in that area. Our immediate neighbor Canada consistenly ranks as the best country in the world to live by the UN, I wonder why? In most respects they are better than the US - social problems, literacy (their students seem to out score ours in every category), etc.
May be an alternative is to be more like the Europeans - relax, smell the roses, take month long vacations to the country or at the seaside. Let's keep Ferco's comments in perspective; it's a sobering one.