06-13-2016, 07:40 PM
(06-13-2016, 01:56 AM)taramarie Wrote:(06-12-2016, 11:58 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(06-12-2016, 12:43 PM)taramarie Wrote:(06-12-2016, 12:02 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:(06-12-2016, 01:16 AM)taramarie Wrote: [quote pid='2702' dateline='1465707586']
Agree but NOT to the point where it sacrifices economic efficiency and rationality. That is illogical. You want another crash go right ahead.
Short-term efficiency at the cost of human happiness, let alone the survival and health (mental as well as physical) of those who actually do the work, is suspect.
Our productive capacities are great enough that we do not need poverty -- and we do not need to drive people to physical exhaustion just to get productivity. We are at the stage at which we cannot get more prosperity from more production of stuff. We do not need more junk for the landfill or even more clutter.
Sustainable happiness is the measure of a wholesome life.
Obviously you have never been in financial strife.
I am in great fear of losing everything. You do not understand the economics of the nursing home business in America.
If we get good economic measures in return for gross inequity and a climate of fear, then something is wrong -- most likely with the economic elite. The MBA culture that formed around 1980 was a rejection of humanistic values that make life tolerable for non-elites. People who believe that no human suffering is in excess so long as the Right People get what they want (basically everything not necessary for animal-like survival for everyone else, as in fascist and feudal orders).
We make enough stuff. We do badly at creating happiness because the ideology of American elites well suited to the sweat-shop level of economic development.
You guys make enough "stuff" but people do not have the money to buy necessities and many are in debt. I believe that is what many are focusing on as the most important thing of all. Survival in hardship.
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Your second paragraph reminds me that today's economic climate is so reminiscent of a holiday observed at the end of every October. Treats for the rich and powerful; tricks for most of the rest of us. When the whole MBA craze was on, to some extent the Me Generation culture no doubt helped push that along. The dark side of things didn't come home to roost for a while, but the scholarly types and those who hadn't yet sucked up to what was happening had already figured it out by 1987, by which time we had the largest homeless population since the Great Depression. The one thing which has prevent Great Depression II so far? No doubt it's consumer credit. This Christmas how about coming up with an adult letter to Santa requesting a world that feels a little less stressful?