Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Sometimes. Depends on whether I have any co-pays that month. My computer is a hand-me-down, and my internet service now costs me less than 3% of my cost of living. Before 2004, I was still on a dial-up freenet, so it cost nothing then.
Sometimes. Depends on whether I have any co-pays that month. My computer is a hand-me-down, and my internet service now costs me less than 3% of my cost of living. Before 2004, I was still on a dial-up freenet, so it cost nothing then.
Since you seem quite determined to be obtuse about what I have tried to tell you, I'll give up. I hope someday you have a chance to see what real poverty looks like and how lucky you truly are compared with so much of the world. You might try Googling Haiti, both before and after the earthquake.
Okay, so I read the logic here that since we aren't in severe poverty, we should accumulate junk that we don't need and be grateful that we are able to be this wasteful and glutinous. Sorry, I don't buy that at all.
That is the same logic as giving a man sixteen meals a day. We force him to eat his sixteen meals per day every day until he weighs 900 pounds. Then we tell him that he should be grateful and feel lucky that he is able to eat like a ravenous pig and that he isn't starving. Yeah, whatever.
Most people haven't figured out anything better to do with their lives except to work, work, work, and work to accumulate stuff that they really don't need. The 'need' is created by marketing techniques and the desire to establish their status in society.
The people have short attention spans, their possessions are not fulfilling, but there are always more and newer gadgets to buy. They remain slaves to the hamster wheel...and they will proudly defend it as the right way to live.
Yep. But instead of "they" be honest and put "we". You're a "slave to the hamster wheel" just as much as the rest.
Since you seem quite determined to be obtuse about what I have tried to tell you, I'll give up. I hope someday you have a chance to see what real poverty looks like and how lucky you truly are compared with so much of the world. You might try Googling Haiti, both before and after the earthquake.
Having lived in Jordan, Indonesia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Bolivia and Communist Romania, and traveled fourth-class in more than 100 other countries, I am not completely ignorant of what poverty looks like. In Paraguay, I paid $15 a month for my rented house.
Nice posts from some people, here.
I guess, regarding this topic, a person's age may play a significant role. Younger people like to chase the money, so they can spend it on whatever they want. That's fine. What is not as good - as people age, they may get used of the hamstring wheel too much, and fail to realize, that they are no longer young enough to enjoy this lifestyle. They just keep going and going, making money and wasting it on crap... And they often complain how life is difficult to make the ends meet. If some of these people are later forced to live on a stringent budget (they lose a job, or become disabled), it is a real disaster, then, because they are unable to enjoy their life without having everything they used to have.
There is a certain stage in our lives when we should realize, that the life is enjoyable even when lived simply. Those who fail to be aware of it are becomming a definite slaves of the social system/social standards, things that formed their lifestyle full of consumerism.
Having lived in Jordan, Indonesia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Bolivia and Communist Romania, and traveled fourth-class in more than 100 other countries, I am not completely ignorant of what poverty looks like. In Paraguay, I paid $15 a month for my rented house.
OK, maybe that's not the best way of asking it. But to me, I cannot really see the point of working more than the bare minimum for subsistence. As they say, you can't take it with you. Life is limited, there is a finite number of hours to our existence. So why waste hours of your life (hours you can never get back) working for a bunch of useless stuff?
Why not instead live a minimalist existence? Ensure that basic necessities of food, clothing, and shelter are taken care of, and maybe take on more work temporarily if there is some thing that really is that important to you.
After all, 100 years from now, every one of us will likely be no more than a memory. A rotting, decaying corpse planted 6 feet underground, eaten by worms.
Well, that's my morbid thought for the day. Is life really worth anything?
You are a leech to society; a parasite.
Learn to dedicate yourself to a cause greater than one man. A cause able to benefit all of humanity even after you are long gone. Dedicate yourself to new form of energy, a cure for a disease, help the impoverished, put out fires, a new form of transportation. Those men make it into the history books and live on. Your view is a morbid and very pessimistic point of view. One I held for awhile.
Why bother, you asked, because if you don't; who will? You can't take it with you. But you can leave it better than it was before.
((I realize how ridiculously naive this all sounds.))
Happiness isn't consumption, it is creation.
The information is out there to do all of the above. You need to apply the dedication in doing it. Man is an innovator and inventor at heart.
Honestly regarding the topic as well. I believe that human life is a gift, it is priceless. All the emotions we feel, are endless imagination capabilities. I guess I am only speaking on terms of...maybe egoentric. But it is true we all do die, but we are still here, we still can help people who cant and do not live a simplistic life like you or I. We can help people that struggle everyday to survive, not just physically, but emotionally, or spiritually. We are alive for each other, I mean imagine if you were the only person that existed than there would be no point, but there is a point to the life we all posess its just figuring it out that is very difficult.
Honestly regarding the topic as well. I believe that human life is a gift, it is priceless. .
It may be a gift. But the old crumbling body you have to drag around wherever you go doesn't seem like a gift after about 80 or 90 years.
Last edited by jtur88; 04-08-2010 at 10:55 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
