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Americans are way too materialistic and there needs to be a reckoning of this if anything is going to change. If this lifestyle works for you, then good for yo

by efitz 3y ago

Americans are way too materialistic and there needs to be a reckoning of this if anything is going to change. If this lifestyle works for you, then good for you. Try raising children that way. There is nothing wrong with wanting to live a comfortable life; the vast majority of humans forever have wanted this. In the USA we have a problem with cost of living, but at the end of the day the reason for this is almost always misguided government intervention. For example, in the housing market, many cities have made it prohibitively expensive to build high density housing (which is what is needed when you have high population density). If you wanted to make medical care unaffordable then you’d design a system like the US system, with artificial limits everywhere on increasing supply, and (well I am well off topic but could go on forever on this). I can completely sympathize with young people today who look at the ridiculous cost of living today and come to the (incorrect) conclusion that the problem is consumerism. But it’s not. It’s a century of well-intentioned but ultimately harmful government policies.

Podgajski 3y ago
> Try raising children that way. Come on now, people have done it for hundreds of thousands of years. Just because it’s different from what you used to doesn’t mean it can’t be done. And it doesn’t mean the children will come out harmed in anyway. > In the USA we have a problem with cost of living, but at the end of the day the reason for this is almost always misguided government intervention. If there is no government intervention after the 2008 recession (QE, 0% rates) then many more people would be living like I am living. That’s how much people don’t want to reduce their lifestyle, they push it out as far into the future as they can. No matter what the cost of that is later on. But you seem to think that the government and the corporate state or two different things when they’re one and the same. All these measures were to save stock, prices, assets, etc..But you seem to think that the government and the corporate state or two different things when they’re one in the same. All these measures were to save stock prices, assets, etc. I’m not a young person, but I can understand what young people think when they see the boomers, who are doing all the consuming, spending all their money which they got from the government interest rates. It’s both not consumers and it is, because the government instituting 0% rates just turned every asset market into a bubble. And this gave everyone with the assets the ability to consume. But you know the government needs people to consume because that’s what creates GDP right? So all the boomers with the larger amount amount of increase in asset prices, they didn’t have to sell their prices for more money, they don’t have to go on vacation and buy more things, they could’ve live more simply, and there would’ve been no inflation. But it’s the consumption from the people with the assets that to inflation. It’s not 0% interest rates alone that Cause inflation.
- mdekkers 3y ago
  > Come on now, people have done it for hundreds of thousands of years. Come now, people also used to die from toothaches, and during those hundreds of thousands of years infant and child mortality was incredibly high, and education practically nonexistent. These “we have done this since the beginning of time” arguments always make me chuckle, they are so incredibly simplistic.
  - tonyedgecombe 3y ago
    >Come now, people also used to die from toothaches Last time I was in America (about 20 years ago) there was an item on the news about a child that had died because of an untreated dental problem.
    - idiotsecant 3y ago
      If its on the news its because its interesting due to its novelty.
      - TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
        "Millions of Americans – as many as 25% of the population – are delaying getting medical help because of skyrocketing costs" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/07/americans-healthcare-medical-costs https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/07/americans-he...
  - MichaelZuo 3y ago
    That doesn't mean it's false though? The parent seems correct that human beings are capable of subsisting and surviving for many many generations on very austere conditions.
    - keiferski 3y ago
      From reading these comments you’d think that human beings were miserable and incapable of any happiness or meaning until someone invented air conditioning and sewage systems. Yes, life used to be more difficult. No, that doesn’t mean such a life was without meaning.
caditinpiscinam 3y ago
> There is nothing wrong with wanting to live a comfortable life; the vast majority of humans forever have wanted this. By itself I think that this is a positive attribute. The problem comes when people believe that they deserve to live more comfortable lives than others, which seems true of most Americans.
- qup 3y ago
  or a comfortable life subsidized by the work of someone else
  - convolvatron 3y ago
    and a tacit understanding that people who aren't integrated into that world need to be swept under the rug until they just go away and die already

by efitz 3y ago

Podgajski 3y ago

> Try raising children that way. Come on now, people have done it for hundreds of thousands of years. Just because it’s different from what you used to doesn’t mean it can’t be done. And it doesn’t mean the children will come out harmed in anyway. > In the USA we have a problem with cost of living, but at the end of the day the reason for this is almost always misguided government intervention. If there is no government intervention after the 2008 recession (QE, 0% rates) then many more people would be living like I am living. That’s how much people don’t want to reduce their lifestyle, they push it out as far into the future as they can. No matter what the cost of that is later on. But you seem to think that the government and the corporate state or two different things when they’re one and the same. All these measures were to save stock, prices, assets, etc..But you seem to think that the government and the corporate state or two different things when they’re one in the same. All these measures were to save stock prices, assets, etc. I’m not a young person, but I can understand what young people think when they see the boomers, who are doing all the consuming, spending all their money which they got from the government interest rates. It’s both not consumers and it is, because the government instituting 0% rates just turned every asset market into a bubble. And this gave everyone with the assets the ability to consume. But you know the government needs people to consume because that’s what creates GDP right? So all the boomers with the larger amount amount of increase in asset prices, they didn’t have to sell their prices for more money, they don’t have to go on vacation and buy more things, they could’ve live more simply, and there would’ve been no inflation. But it’s the consumption from the people with the assets that to inflation. It’s not 0% interest rates alone that Cause inflation.

mdekkers 3y ago
> Come on now, people have done it for hundreds of thousands of years. Come now, people also used to die from toothaches, and during those hundreds of thousands of years infant and child mortality was incredibly high, and education practically nonexistent. These “we have done this since the beginning of time” arguments always make me chuckle, they are so incredibly simplistic.
- tonyedgecombe 3y ago
  >Come now, people also used to die from toothaches Last time I was in America (about 20 years ago) there was an item on the news about a child that had died because of an untreated dental problem.
  - idiotsecant 3y ago
    If its on the news its because its interesting due to its novelty.
    - TheOtherHobbes 3y ago
      "Millions of Americans – as many as 25% of the population – are delaying getting medical help because of skyrocketing costs" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/07/americans-healthcare-medical-costs https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/07/americans-he...
- MichaelZuo 3y ago
  That doesn't mean it's false though? The parent seems correct that human beings are capable of subsisting and surviving for many many generations on very austere conditions.
  - keiferski 3y ago
    From reading these comments you’d think that human beings were miserable and incapable of any happiness or meaning until someone invented air conditioning and sewage systems. Yes, life used to be more difficult. No, that doesn’t mean such a life was without meaning.

caditinpiscinam 3y ago

> There is nothing wrong with wanting to live a comfortable life; the vast majority of humans forever have wanted this. By itself I think that this is a positive attribute. The problem comes when people believe that they deserve to live more comfortable lives than others, which seems true of most Americans.

qup 3y ago
or a comfortable life subsidized by the work of someone else
- convolvatron 3y ago
  and a tacit understanding that people who aren't integrated into that world need to be swept under the rug until they just go away and die already