Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

The_wall · 11-17-2004, 09:12 AM

edit:crap I meant to put this in tilted living, if the mods could move it there or wherever they think it should belong.

I just wanna apologize ahead of time if you don't get what I'm saying, I'm not to good at expressing my thoughts on paper (or in this case on a monitor)

In my every day routine I always get the impression from the people I meet that money is the key to hapiness. You watch the news and they talk about the poor US economy and you get the impression everyone has this shitty life because of it. I come on here and read the politics section and besides terrorism, most of the posts it seems are about the economy. I go to work and all the kids I work with talk about how they wanna make a shitload of cash so they can buy all sorts of crap, and they think that will make them happy.

In high school I had a humanitarians teacher, and a year later a public issues teacher, both of whom asked the class on the first day to write a short paragraph on the purpose we all go to school. In the class probably 70% of the kids thought the purpose was so we could go to college and then get a good job that makes a lot of money. If you asked the whole school I'm sure most of the responses would be the same.

It feels like there is just this line of thinking that the purpose of life is to get a good job to buy a nice house and buy all sorts of crap. I hear people argue against things like universal health, the reasoning often times is it'll raise taxes and those people don't wanna pay for others health care. My question to them is is that 52" screen tv, or swimming pool, or whatever it is you plan on buying with your extra money really more important to you then the well being of another person? I realize in many cases these people don't wanna be taxed because its their rent or car insurance that they need to pay for and not luxury items(which is why you need less taxes on the lower class).

I realize having a good economy is important, and having the things we have is indeed very nice. I just find we are way too obsessed with it all, and Americans everyday find more and more hapiness in consumerism.

11-17-2004, 09:12 AM	#1 (permalink)
The_wall Psycho Location: Rhode Island biatches!	Is the U.S too obsessed with money? edit:crap I meant to put this in tilted living, if the mods could move it there or wherever they think it should belong. I just wanna apologize ahead of time if you don't get what I'm saying, I'm not to good at expressing my thoughts on paper (or in this case on a monitor) In my every day routine I always get the impression from the people I meet that money is the key to hapiness. You watch the news and they talk about the poor US economy and you get the impression everyone has this shitty life because of it. I come on here and read the politics section and besides terrorism, most of the posts it seems are about the economy. I go to work and all the kids I work with talk about how they wanna make a shitload of cash so they can buy all sorts of crap, and they think that will make them happy. In high school I had a humanitarians teacher, and a year later a public issues teacher, both of whom asked the class on the first day to write a short paragraph on the purpose we all go to school. In the class probably 70% of the kids thought the purpose was so we could go to college and then get a good job that makes a lot of money. If you asked the whole school I'm sure most of the responses would be the same. It feels like there is just this line of thinking that the purpose of life is to get a good job to buy a nice house and buy all sorts of crap. I hear people argue against things like universal health, the reasoning often times is it'll raise taxes and those people don't wanna pay for others health care. My question to them is is that 52" screen tv, or swimming pool, or whatever it is you plan on buying with your extra money really more important to you then the well being of another person? I realize in many cases these people don't wanna be taxed because its their rent or car insurance that they need to pay for and not luxury items(which is why you need less taxes on the lower class). I realize having a good economy is important, and having the things we have is indeed very nice. I just find we are way too obsessed with it all, and Americans everyday find more and more hapiness in consumerism. __________________ "We do what we like and we like what we do!"~andrew Wk Procrastinate now, don't put off to the last minute.