Our consumptive society is causing lots of problems in both the environment and politics. Consumption, however, creates the jobs that pay the high bills for housing and certain other necessities. Consumption is needed to keep people employed.
I'd like to think we could figure out a better way to keep moving forward, as a society, beyond just increasing material consumption. How about indexes for happiness? Problem still remains, how can people afford to pay the bills, rents, mortgages and so forth. Certain things have gone way up, in cost, compared to the flow of consumer goods and services.
I remember how wealthy I felt this country was during my childhood. The toys, we had back then, compared to the Smartphones of today, were quite spartan. The happiness I gained from just a simple transistor radio was quite high, compared to people taking the Smartphone for granted.
Another part of the problem, today, is wealth and income inequality. Humans have a tendency to compare ourselves with others who have more. Today's world seems to be governed by the politics of resentment. During my childhood, we only got 3 or 4 channels on our new color TV. It was still pretty exciting tho the color only worked occasionally. Reception was fringe as far as we were from the Spokane TV stations and many of the shows were still in black and white, but when the color worked, it was remarkable.
I was impressed by the wealth of USA when I saw certain shows, like Lawrence Welk, where whole street scenes could be built in the studio for just one act. A quaint little town could be served up, just for someone to sing a song and then a totally different scene for the next act. I kept thinking, wow, they have lots of money to do that.
My thought of abundance was reinforced by all the talk of how rich USA was compared to other countries in the world. We could go to the moon and fight poverty, with President Johnson's Great Society, both at the same time.
Newscasters did worry, at that time, as to whether we could afford it all, however. There was the Vietnam War and the concern about spending for both "guns and butter."
I had TV in my childhood, but I was more into my radio. While the TV only brought a few channels, the radio brought many more choices; especially at night due to ionospheric skip. I spent many a night tuning in stations from places like New Orleans, Chicago and San Francisco.
I was fascinated by the magnetic waves, called radio waves, which would travel that far. I'd even drew lines on maps to imagine the trip those waves were taking. Today, our toys offer much more, but there seems to be less appreciation of what we have. Cynicism and jadedness seems to prevail.
Compared to today's products, the consumer products of my childhood were quite spartan, but the slower flow of goods and services seemed more appreciated back then.
Today's incredible flow of goods and services seems like a desperate need for survival. The economy needs to stay in high gear to keep the jobs going so people can even afford to have a place to call home.
Yes, there are twice as many people as before and other countries, around the world, have caught up with our lead.
Development that has led to low density sprawl has had an effect for sure. These days, with our larger population, it's leading to more and more traffic gridlock. Somehow we need to rekindle the mindset that we are moving forward.
Yes, our technology is increasing in sophistication, which I still think is a good thing, for the most part. The problem seems to be more related to the mindset and maybe our higher level of expectations. Expectations can create needs and the needs, in our world, are overwhelming. The cynicism, jadedness and the desperation related to just getting to and hanging on in the middle class, I guess.
We need to innovate our culture, somehow, for a more enjoyable and sustainable world. Just increasing, ever more, the throughput of products isn't likely to do it.
I'm a fan of having more free time, but so many working people can't afford that. Retirement is one of the joys of life.
The years I was working, at low paid jobs, my rent and bills were low enough that I got by okay. I also could take lots of time off for bicycle travel and community involvement. I felt blessed, but my expectations were different from mainstream. Rents were also lower, back through most of those years and the places I lived were well below market, even for back then. Yes, some of my accommodation was a bit spartan, but life was, for the most part, good.
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