h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Having things we can't afford - and, in most cases, don't deserve - is what life in the free and free-wheeling West is all about, isn't it?

JTG

And just to prove a point... off to amazon I go.

JTG

Whilst the rest of the planet starves???

How can we justify wasting money so regardlessly?

We can't, of course. The way we waste resources is criminal and someday we'll be held accountable for it.

On the other hand, being in personal debt is better than driving the cost of our toys to artificially low levels by enslaving workers in the third world. Paying them a decent wage and accepting the real cost of our lifestyle is much to be preferred.

A question we ought to ask ourselves is how we dispose of our disposable income. Some toy that we can well do without is probably more expensive than the cost of making a real difference to someone's life in many parts of the world.

JTG

Thanks...

I wasn't getting at you, just trying to make a point...

Our western society has so deluded people with the promise of happines through wealth and possesions, that we would give everything for a new TV, or Stereo...

I'm not guiltless of this myself, but I realise that the society in which I have been raised is such a selfish one that it makes me pitty it.

Where is the "Love your neighbour as yourself" in this world? Better to get into debt, so that someone can live, than get into debt so that a large multinational corporation can exploit even more people.

The problem isn't being in debt, as such, as much as the reason so many of us are in debt. It wouldn't be such a bad thing to owe the bank some money in order to own something nice if it was merely a question of buying something worth more money than we happen to have.

The trouble is that we are going into debt in order to own more of everything at prices that are so low that we can't afford to make the stuff ourselves. Now we rely on our very own captains of industry to find a Third World general with enough slaves to make things for next to nothing... while we chide our politicians about human rights.

Interestingly, only a hundred years or so ago, the vast bulk of what people spent their money on was the raw material to make things themselves, and their debts were either to their employer or to the local shopkeeper.

JTG

Strange that...

I'm certain that it's not that we couldn't make the same products ourselves, it's that we wouldn't be willing to pay the "true" price for them.
A friend was listening to an advert on the radio, for some sort of DIY store... who were basically saying that the price of many of their products had fallen in price since last year. To which he thought "Hmmm, well that's probably because you no longer make them in this country and have succesfully set-up a third world manufacurer to supply them at a tenth of the cost, whilst doubling your profits"... Sad but true I guess.

Why ARE people so two faced?

Looking at the import/export statistics for this country is quite something...

I heard a joke recently about the last two Canadians (substitute Americans, Brits, what-have-you...) are going to starve to death trying to sell each other insurance.

I think debt is a great and wonderful thing. We have finally reached a point where money is so ephemeral that people will give us real things just because we promise to add another zero at the end of their bank account.

Imagine that. Considering the famous wit of Douglas Adams himself, in reference to little green pieces of paper that make us unhappy, we've taken it one step further. It is the promise that eventually we will give some little green pieces of paper.

In other words, we have devalued everything down to nothing. It is only our own predilection for honesty that keeps the whole thing running. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have eight credit cards I just received in the mail to max out. I'm thinking of buying a really nice blender...or a car...

Theesil

That's the spirit.

JTG

That's right, you can't take it with you but your debts can live on after you die....how's that for leaving your mark? Our whole economy is founded on debt, it's consume, consume, consume all the way. We die but all the crap we've thrown out stays forever buried in some pit somewhere. Debt is all about living larger and longer than you could ever manage on your own....the American Dream!

A smile wider than your mouth and a body that just won't rot. Gotta love it.