11 ms·

This reminds me of an anecdote a friend told me: This friend dedicates his time in going to very rural areas/towns here in Mexico to implement government progra

This reminds me of an anecdote a friend told me: This friend dedicates his time in going to very rural areas/towns here in Mexico to implement government programs. At some point in the past he got to a town were the cantina had just gotten the only TV in town... apparently people in the town were generally happy, and they had everything they needed... so in their view they were not poor. But once they started watching TV, they started seeing the Nikes, the fridges, the trips to Europe and all that "stuff" that they couldn't get... and there they started to ask why couldnt they get all that and thus started feeling poor. Amazing what advertising can do for perceived "needs"

banads 7y ago
Another personal anecdote: once I stopped watching TV I stopped feeling self conscious about driving a 10+ year old car, and no longer yearned to buy a new one.
- chapium 7y ago
  That helps explain how much advertising is done for durable goods that we only buy every X years.
- Franciscouzo 7y ago
  Driving a newish car is a pretty good idea though, they are generally way safer.
  - mixmastamyk 7y ago
    If you are talking about one from the 80s probably yes, 2009 not so much.
    - theptip 7y ago
      I don't think this is correct. A lot of the new driver assistance technologies are having a significant effect on safety: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/22/new-report-shows-how-many-accidents-injuries-collision-avoidance-systems-prevent.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/22/new-report-shows-how-many-ac... These features are new in the last 10 years, some are new in the last couple years, and they are continually improving.
      - CamperBob2 7y ago
        The effect appears to be negative if anything. That article is starkly (and suspiciously) alone in its conclusions, if you look at what's been happening statistically over the last few years. The systems will get better, but for the time being, they mostly serve to let drivers think they can get away with paying even less attention to the road than usual.
        uoaei 7y ago
        This is a "get off my lawn" sort of comment, but: Easy cars are making worse drivers. People rarely check their blind spot now because the little light on their sideview mirror lights up instead. People are less concerned about driving unsafely because their cars are thicker, heavier, and bigger than the other participants on the road. This has been especially troubling to watch develop from the bike lane, as visibility shrinks and auto manufacturers don't seem to test extensively whether their onboard radar can detect cyclists and pedestrians. It's created a very strange experience of driving where the person inside does not share the same reality as the outside except when their car is within 2 feet of another car. Cars are cages, not only physically, but mentally too.
        CamperBob2 7y ago
        People rarely check their blind spot no True, and another facet of the same problem is that blind spots are getting bigger by the model year, as automakers take the cheap way out and raise their belt lines to meet side-impact regulations. We will all be driving around in tanks before long. I guess that's supposed to be a good thing.
        uoaei 7y ago
        > We will all be driving around in tanks before long. Car doors are close to a foot thick now. The cars are getting huge which means more space is occupied by the streets (increased lane width and space in intersections for larger turning radius), the parking lots (larger parking spots and wider spaces to drive between them), etc. The mental isolation between driver and environment is growing and does not seem to be decelerating. I'm convinced that maybe 10% of all drivers (in my area, suburban SV) pay any attention to what's happening behind them. They don't have to care, so they don't! Cars are devouring mobility.
    - dgacmu 7y ago
      2012 -- electronic stability control made a pretty big difference. Past that, the jury is out.
      - mixmastamyk 7y ago
        Mandatory that year but common before that.
TheGallopedHigh 7y ago
Said succinctly: Comparison is the thief of joy
- JohnFen 7y ago
  One of my favorite sayings is "never compare yourself to others, for it will make you both vain and bitter. There will always be someone worse than you, and always someone better."
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    Ive always felt quite the opposite: comparing myself to those better off than me motivates me and to those worse off makes me grateful for what I have. This started pretty immediately after I entered the workforce. I don't know what accounts for me ending up on the win-win side of the coin, but I'm evidence that you can't take for granted that the lose-lose situation you describe will happen.
    - mtmalla 7y ago
      It's probably more accurate to say that it's a quadrant with the axes being 'comparison' and 'gratitude'. Being high on gratitude and high on comparison accounts for your quadrant of possibilities. It seems like the moral is to either be lower in comparison, or higher in gratitude. Or both :)
- therealdrag0 7y ago
  Example: Comparing engineering salaries :/. It can be addictive and disheartening to look up salaries and see giant numbers.
  - ben_w 7y ago
    Perhaps I’m unusual, but other people earning more than me doesn’t dishearten me. My first job after uni was UK national average for all adults, so I felt well off even on “only” £24k in 2007, but ever since then, no matter how much I get paid, other people keep telling me I don’t earn enough. If anything, the idea of earning twice as much feels weird rather than aspirational.
cm2012 7y ago
We should strive to take away the option of knowledge from the poor, so they can be happy with their place in society.
- apatters 7y ago
  We should strive to lie less to the poor about what they need to possess.
  - kittiepryde 7y ago
    Like access to health care?
  - tartoran 7y ago
    We should strive to lie less period! Not only the poor are lied to, the middle class is the main target IMHO
  - manigandham 7y ago
    False advertising is already illegal. Other than that, there's nothing wrong with creating desire for something. It's ultimately up to the people to make their own choices.
    - frenchyatwork 7y ago
      Blatantly false advertising is illegal. There's a lot of room between "blatantly false" and "valuable and informative". That's why we have upvote and downvote mechanisms. Also, I understand not everyone believes this, but I think there is something morally wrong with the form and scale of manipulation that modern advertisement brings.
- teekert 7y ago
  Maybe we can just create a lower underclass that we make too stupid to care for growth by subjecting them to alcohol during pregnancy and provide them with drugs that will simply allow them to be content by being.
jhoechtl 7y ago
Thank you for sharing this. My personal take-away is that advertisment and even worse marketing are a plague to our society.
hadiz 7y ago
Now everyone has a TV in their pockets with infinite ads. IG, FB, Tinder, etc.
- thewebcount 7y ago
  It's interesting that you think that. I have a TV in my pocket with no ads. It's what I always dreamt of!
eloff 7y ago
Another example, Apartheid South Africa got TV in 1976, six months later the riots started, coincidence? I think as soon as black people in South Africa could see how black people in America lived, they truly realized how bad they had it. Here it contributed to the undoing of an unjust government, so it's not always a force for evil. I think the most dangerous thing to North Korea is western media. I know the South Koreans like to float DVDs over on balloons and things, but the US would be smart to get into that in a big way.
- zbyte64 7y ago
  They probably got more of their aspirations from sitcoms featuring black families and less from advertisements.
  - eloff 7y ago
    Yes, I suspect so, I was speaking about TV in general, not advertisements, which could be confusing given the posted article.
- Legogris 7y ago
  I was listening to the Unchained podcast when DPRK defector Yeonmi Park was a guest. She escaped from the DPRK when she was 16 and just having watched the movie Titanic (that her uncle had gotten hold of) once as a kid influenced her thinking a lot. https://unchainedpodcast.com/yeonmi-park-on-why-doing-business-with-north-korea-is-like-buying-a-ticket-to-a-concentration-camp/ https://unchainedpodcast.com/yeonmi-park-on-why-doing-busine...
  - barrkel 7y ago
    I started reading that transcript and my BS detectors were bouncing off the charts. I think she's peddling a profitable narrative; from other sources [1], it seems clear that her position in NK was privileged in relative terms. No doubt she's had hardships, but all her incentives as a professional - what, exactly? witness? victim? - are to exaggerate the harshness of her experiences. [1] https://thediplomat.com/2014/12/the-strange-tale-of-yeonmi-park/ https://thediplomat.com/2014/12/the-strange-tale-of-yeonmi-p...
throwawaymath 7y ago
That raises profound and fascinating philosophical questions about the nature of knowledge and happiness. I wonder how many of those people would choose to forego the knowledge of what they don't have if it meant they would be happy again. On the other hand, is that even a meaningful question to ask, given it's not possible? Which of course leads to the ethical question: is it right for people to live in ignorance if it makes them happy, it it's not their choice? Is it fundamentally better for people to be happy rather than aware of massive inequality (up to and including significant poverty)? How much would be appropriate to hide, for how much additional happiness? Is it better in the long run for some to be unhappy if it brings attention to inequality? I don't have any of those answers, but they're interesting and challenging questions.
- Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
  > is it right for people to live in ignorance if it makes them happy, it it's not their choice? I wouldn't pretend to answer if it is "right" (what does it even mean), but a lot of people already do live in ignorance. Maybe not in the straight way of ignorance of not being able to recollect some information, but certainly in terms of assigning certain labels and judgements to it. So many people watch a TV with someone having a great time and think/feel to themselves things like "they stole the money somehow to get there", "they had rich parents", "they are not happy anyway", "life is unfair, they got their riches through unfairness", "money is the root of all evil", "money brings unhappiness", "it's not their real life, just some fake instagram story" etc.
  - tartoran 7y ago
    Some of those 'false' narratives are generalities that are not too far away from the truth. It is true that pursuing money does not bring happiness in itself if one is blinded by the pursuit and does not know when to stop. It is true that rich people's offspring are also rich. It is also true that a lot of what's on TV is fake or generally falls into these patterns. Just at Hollywood for example
  - 6510 7y ago
    We all live in ignorance. Our most epic skill is to work with incomplete information. We use to praise people for being able to do arithmetic in their head or memorize large amounts of information. The computers showed that those abilities are only challenging because we lack the "design" for it. Advertisement, like Instagram or facebook is tailored to give us the impressions the Joneses are doing much better for themselves. Some of this is true, some is designed to tap into this emotion. I actually woke up 30 min ago iterating over all the things I didn't get in life that most other people had in abundance. It's not the first time I pondered that. After the excuses you mention above I always come back to a thought I had when I was I think 6 years old: Other peoples lives, their expectations and their opinions are not really all that interesting or important. They could be if they put minimal effort into creating or evolving them. In stead they just copy this stuff from the next guy without review - then dedicate their lives to living up to them. I consider myself extremely privileged to escape from that formula. I've never written it down before but happiness now starts with having oxygen to breath, then comes having water to drink, food and a place to sleep share the 3rd spot, 4th is having the mind set to think about something, 5th is a sense of safety and the privilege to implement the thoughts, 6th is to be able to share the thoughts and brainstorm, 7th is to have good people in my life, 8th is to be able to pay my bills, 9th a decent set of garments etc Having what other people are having is still on the list some place but to have 1-4 makes for a fantastic life. 5 includes health and fitness. The rest is really just nonsense by comparison. What I'm trying to say is that satisfaction is overrated. You get only so much of it, trying to optimize for it just diminishes it. > the survey question “How satisfied are you with your life?” Not satisfied? Well good! Time to accomplish something!
taurath 7y ago
You can’t put it back in the cage - just like working in the movie industry changes the way you look at movies, advertising changes the way you feel in society.
Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
Isn't this the desired behavior of a complicated consciousness? I always thought that being real, as in being in contact with reality, knowing what is going on - is one of the main characteristic of a quality consciousness, as opposed to an inferior one which is lost in it's own illusions. So then of course a good consciousness could react (including emotionally) to a different landscape of reality? To new information about what reality is, what is possible in life, what activities can be done, what experiences to be had etc? This is by design and the desired behavior, no? Also I don't think that happiness is in such direct linear correlation to this, despite of some anecdotes - there are a plenty of rich unhappy people (who know that they are the richest on the planet, who know they have it good, because on TV they see people doing less interesting things).
hnaccy 7y ago
Maybe we could blind all the poor people, that way we don't need to buy them decadent luxuries like refrigerators.
WalterBright 7y ago
That's why the old Soviet Union tried to jam western TV broadcasts leaking over the border.
ksec 7y ago
It is not just advert, I think there is similar pattern to knowledge of something better exists. The internet, or Social Media with instagram, Facebook etc, has make you realise how much better something / life could be. All that stuff you couldn't get. Ignorance is bliss.
miah_ 7y ago
Sounds a lot like the Chinese film 'Ermo'. "Ermo is a hardworking village woman in the northern province of Hebei, who makes noodles to feed her husband and child. When her neighbor buys a brand new television, she is consumed by dreams of owning one herself. Desperate to own the largest television in the village, she becomes obsessive in her desire to earn money, eventually leaving the village to work in town. Her efforts to earn enough money damages her health and her relationship with her family." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermo
aylmao 7y ago
The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced advertising should be regulated.
- forgotmysn 7y ago
  advertising is regulated
  - aylmao 7y ago
    *more regulated, my bad.
DiffEq 7y ago
The thing is they should see what they CAN have and they should wonder WHY they can't have it. Then maybe they can do something about it. Because simply one of the main reasons why Mexico does not have a higher standard of living is absolutely not becasue the Mexicans are lazy or dumb. It is because of the immense amount of corruption in their government; I think once they start to learn the source of their state of being they might decide to to try and really change it.
yibg 7y ago
I’m not sure if it’s just the TV, but definitely exposure to what’s out there can have this effect. I’ve seen family members that were generally happy with village life (developing country), until they get exposed to what’s in the modern cities. This can be from TV and other media but often times it’s just visiting or living there. I have cousins that would be considered modest down to earth people that were generally happy etc. Live in the city for a while because of school or work and a few years later are completely different. Much more superficial, materialistic and I guess shrewd. Not sure what the answer is. The change is negative in my opinion. But keeping what’s out there from them isn’t right either.

banads 7y ago

Another personal anecdote: once I stopped watching TV I stopped feeling self conscious about driving a 10+ year old car, and no longer yearned to buy a new one.

chapium 7y ago
That helps explain how much advertising is done for durable goods that we only buy every X years.
Franciscouzo 7y ago
Driving a newish car is a pretty good idea though, they are generally way safer.
- mixmastamyk 7y ago
  If you are talking about one from the 80s probably yes, 2009 not so much.
  - theptip 7y ago
    I don't think this is correct. A lot of the new driver assistance technologies are having a significant effect on safety: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/22/new-report-shows-how-many-accidents-injuries-collision-avoidance-systems-prevent.html https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/22/new-report-shows-how-many-ac... These features are new in the last 10 years, some are new in the last couple years, and they are continually improving.
    - CamperBob2 7y ago
      The effect appears to be negative if anything. That article is starkly (and suspiciously) alone in its conclusions, if you look at what's been happening statistically over the last few years. The systems will get better, but for the time being, they mostly serve to let drivers think they can get away with paying even less attention to the road than usual.
      - uoaei 7y ago
        This is a "get off my lawn" sort of comment, but: Easy cars are making worse drivers. People rarely check their blind spot now because the little light on their sideview mirror lights up instead. People are less concerned about driving unsafely because their cars are thicker, heavier, and bigger than the other participants on the road. This has been especially troubling to watch develop from the bike lane, as visibility shrinks and auto manufacturers don't seem to test extensively whether their onboard radar can detect cyclists and pedestrians. It's created a very strange experience of driving where the person inside does not share the same reality as the outside except when their car is within 2 feet of another car. Cars are cages, not only physically, but mentally too.
        CamperBob2 7y ago
        People rarely check their blind spot no True, and another facet of the same problem is that blind spots are getting bigger by the model year, as automakers take the cheap way out and raise their belt lines to meet side-impact regulations. We will all be driving around in tanks before long. I guess that's supposed to be a good thing.
        uoaei 7y ago
        > We will all be driving around in tanks before long. Car doors are close to a foot thick now. The cars are getting huge which means more space is occupied by the streets (increased lane width and space in intersections for larger turning radius), the parking lots (larger parking spots and wider spaces to drive between them), etc. The mental isolation between driver and environment is growing and does not seem to be decelerating. I'm convinced that maybe 10% of all drivers (in my area, suburban SV) pay any attention to what's happening behind them. They don't have to care, so they don't! Cars are devouring mobility.
  - dgacmu 7y ago
    2012 -- electronic stability control made a pretty big difference. Past that, the jury is out.
    - mixmastamyk 7y ago
      Mandatory that year but common before that.

TheGallopedHigh 7y ago

Said succinctly: Comparison is the thief of joy

JohnFen 7y ago
One of my favorite sayings is "never compare yourself to others, for it will make you both vain and bitter. There will always be someone worse than you, and always someone better."
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  Ive always felt quite the opposite: comparing myself to those better off than me motivates me and to those worse off makes me grateful for what I have. This started pretty immediately after I entered the workforce. I don't know what accounts for me ending up on the win-win side of the coin, but I'm evidence that you can't take for granted that the lose-lose situation you describe will happen.
  - mtmalla 7y ago
    It's probably more accurate to say that it's a quadrant with the axes being 'comparison' and 'gratitude'. Being high on gratitude and high on comparison accounts for your quadrant of possibilities. It seems like the moral is to either be lower in comparison, or higher in gratitude. Or both :)
therealdrag0 7y ago
Example: Comparing engineering salaries :/. It can be addictive and disheartening to look up salaries and see giant numbers.
- ben_w 7y ago
  Perhaps I’m unusual, but other people earning more than me doesn’t dishearten me. My first job after uni was UK national average for all adults, so I felt well off even on “only” £24k in 2007, but ever since then, no matter how much I get paid, other people keep telling me I don’t earn enough. If anything, the idea of earning twice as much feels weird rather than aspirational.

cm2012 7y ago

We should strive to take away the option of knowledge from the poor, so they can be happy with their place in society.

apatters 7y ago
We should strive to lie less to the poor about what they need to possess.
- kittiepryde 7y ago
  Like access to health care?
- tartoran 7y ago
  We should strive to lie less period! Not only the poor are lied to, the middle class is the main target IMHO
- manigandham 7y ago
  False advertising is already illegal. Other than that, there's nothing wrong with creating desire for something. It's ultimately up to the people to make their own choices.
  - frenchyatwork 7y ago
    Blatantly false advertising is illegal. There's a lot of room between "blatantly false" and "valuable and informative". That's why we have upvote and downvote mechanisms. Also, I understand not everyone believes this, but I think there is something morally wrong with the form and scale of manipulation that modern advertisement brings.
teekert 7y ago
Maybe we can just create a lower underclass that we make too stupid to care for growth by subjecting them to alcohol during pregnancy and provide them with drugs that will simply allow them to be content by being.

jhoechtl 7y ago

Thank you for sharing this. My personal take-away is that advertisment and even worse marketing are a plague to our society.

hadiz 7y ago

Now everyone has a TV in their pockets with infinite ads. IG, FB, Tinder, etc.

thewebcount 7y ago
It's interesting that you think that. I have a TV in my pocket with no ads. It's what I always dreamt of!

eloff 7y ago

Another example, Apartheid South Africa got TV in 1976, six months later the riots started, coincidence? I think as soon as black people in South Africa could see how black people in America lived, they truly realized how bad they had it. Here it contributed to the undoing of an unjust government, so it's not always a force for evil. I think the most dangerous thing to North Korea is western media. I know the South Koreans like to float DVDs over on balloons and things, but the US would be smart to get into that in a big way.

zbyte64 7y ago
They probably got more of their aspirations from sitcoms featuring black families and less from advertisements.
- eloff 7y ago
  Yes, I suspect so, I was speaking about TV in general, not advertisements, which could be confusing given the posted article.
Legogris 7y ago
I was listening to the Unchained podcast when DPRK defector Yeonmi Park was a guest. She escaped from the DPRK when she was 16 and just having watched the movie Titanic (that her uncle had gotten hold of) once as a kid influenced her thinking a lot. https://unchainedpodcast.com/yeonmi-park-on-why-doing-business-with-north-korea-is-like-buying-a-ticket-to-a-concentration-camp/ https://unchainedpodcast.com/yeonmi-park-on-why-doing-busine...
- barrkel 7y ago
  I started reading that transcript and my BS detectors were bouncing off the charts. I think she's peddling a profitable narrative; from other sources [1], it seems clear that her position in NK was privileged in relative terms. No doubt she's had hardships, but all her incentives as a professional - what, exactly? witness? victim? - are to exaggerate the harshness of her experiences. [1] https://thediplomat.com/2014/12/the-strange-tale-of-yeonmi-park/ https://thediplomat.com/2014/12/the-strange-tale-of-yeonmi-p...

throwawaymath 7y ago

That raises profound and fascinating philosophical questions about the nature of knowledge and happiness. I wonder how many of those people would choose to forego the knowledge of what they don't have if it meant they would be happy again. On the other hand, is that even a meaningful question to ask, given it's not possible? Which of course leads to the ethical question: is it right for people to live in ignorance if it makes them happy, it it's not their choice? Is it fundamentally better for people to be happy rather than aware of massive inequality (up to and including significant poverty)? How much would be appropriate to hide, for how much additional happiness? Is it better in the long run for some to be unhappy if it brings attention to inequality? I don't have any of those answers, but they're interesting and challenging questions.

Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
> is it right for people to live in ignorance if it makes them happy, it it's not their choice? I wouldn't pretend to answer if it is "right" (what does it even mean), but a lot of people already do live in ignorance. Maybe not in the straight way of ignorance of not being able to recollect some information, but certainly in terms of assigning certain labels and judgements to it. So many people watch a TV with someone having a great time and think/feel to themselves things like "they stole the money somehow to get there", "they had rich parents", "they are not happy anyway", "life is unfair, they got their riches through unfairness", "money is the root of all evil", "money brings unhappiness", "it's not their real life, just some fake instagram story" etc.
- tartoran 7y ago
  Some of those 'false' narratives are generalities that are not too far away from the truth. It is true that pursuing money does not bring happiness in itself if one is blinded by the pursuit and does not know when to stop. It is true that rich people's offspring are also rich. It is also true that a lot of what's on TV is fake or generally falls into these patterns. Just at Hollywood for example
- 6510 7y ago
  We all live in ignorance. Our most epic skill is to work with incomplete information. We use to praise people for being able to do arithmetic in their head or memorize large amounts of information. The computers showed that those abilities are only challenging because we lack the "design" for it. Advertisement, like Instagram or facebook is tailored to give us the impressions the Joneses are doing much better for themselves. Some of this is true, some is designed to tap into this emotion. I actually woke up 30 min ago iterating over all the things I didn't get in life that most other people had in abundance. It's not the first time I pondered that. After the excuses you mention above I always come back to a thought I had when I was I think 6 years old: Other peoples lives, their expectations and their opinions are not really all that interesting or important. They could be if they put minimal effort into creating or evolving them. In stead they just copy this stuff from the next guy without review - then dedicate their lives to living up to them. I consider myself extremely privileged to escape from that formula. I've never written it down before but happiness now starts with having oxygen to breath, then comes having water to drink, food and a place to sleep share the 3rd spot, 4th is having the mind set to think about something, 5th is a sense of safety and the privilege to implement the thoughts, 6th is to be able to share the thoughts and brainstorm, 7th is to have good people in my life, 8th is to be able to pay my bills, 9th a decent set of garments etc Having what other people are having is still on the list some place but to have 1-4 makes for a fantastic life. 5 includes health and fitness. The rest is really just nonsense by comparison. What I'm trying to say is that satisfaction is overrated. You get only so much of it, trying to optimize for it just diminishes it. > the survey question “How satisfied are you with your life?” Not satisfied? Well good! Time to accomplish something!

taurath 7y ago

You can’t put it back in the cage - just like working in the movie industry changes the way you look at movies, advertising changes the way you feel in society.

Erlich_Bachman 7y ago

Isn't this the desired behavior of a complicated consciousness? I always thought that being real, as in being in contact with reality, knowing what is going on - is one of the main characteristic of a quality consciousness, as opposed to an inferior one which is lost in it's own illusions. So then of course a good consciousness could react (including emotionally) to a different landscape of reality? To new information about what reality is, what is possible in life, what activities can be done, what experiences to be had etc? This is by design and the desired behavior, no? Also I don't think that happiness is in such direct linear correlation to this, despite of some anecdotes - there are a plenty of rich unhappy people (who know that they are the richest on the planet, who know they have it good, because on TV they see people doing less interesting things).

hnaccy 7y ago

Maybe we could blind all the poor people, that way we don't need to buy them decadent luxuries like refrigerators.

WalterBright 7y ago

That's why the old Soviet Union tried to jam western TV broadcasts leaking over the border.

ksec 7y ago

It is not just advert, I think there is similar pattern to knowledge of something better exists. The internet, or Social Media with instagram, Facebook etc, has make you realise how much better something / life could be. All that stuff you couldn't get. Ignorance is bliss.

miah_ 7y ago

Sounds a lot like the Chinese film 'Ermo'. "Ermo is a hardworking village woman in the northern province of Hebei, who makes noodles to feed her husband and child. When her neighbor buys a brand new television, she is consumed by dreams of owning one herself. Desperate to own the largest television in the village, she becomes obsessive in her desire to earn money, eventually leaving the village to work in town. Her efforts to earn enough money damages her health and her relationship with her family." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermo

aylmao 7y ago

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced advertising should be regulated.

forgotmysn 7y ago
advertising is regulated
- aylmao 7y ago
  *more regulated, my bad.

DiffEq 7y ago

The thing is they should see what they CAN have and they should wonder WHY they can't have it. Then maybe they can do something about it. Because simply one of the main reasons why Mexico does not have a higher standard of living is absolutely not becasue the Mexicans are lazy or dumb. It is because of the immense amount of corruption in their government; I think once they start to learn the source of their state of being they might decide to to try and really change it.

yibg 7y ago

I’m not sure if it’s just the TV, but definitely exposure to what’s out there can have this effect. I’ve seen family members that were generally happy with village life (developing country), until they get exposed to what’s in the modern cities. This can be from TV and other media but often times it’s just visiting or living there. I have cousins that would be considered modest down to earth people that were generally happy etc. Live in the city for a while because of school or work and a few years later are completely different. Much more superficial, materialistic and I guess shrewd. Not sure what the answer is. The change is negative in my opinion. But keeping what’s out there from them isn’t right either.