The problem I see with our country is that we have lost the capability to delay gratification…. [View all]

[WCGreen]

Just look at the political and economic systems that are in place across the world. People have become so accustomed to having what they want NOW, that there is no longer a sense of working toward something longer than a few weeks.

We are bombarded with messages that play into the developing trait that new is always good and cutting edge technology gives you some kind of guru status to those around you.

Buy it now. This is the newest best thing in the world. How can you be so lame as to still be using 3G.

All of this has developed in the 1920’s but was derailed by the Great Depression which was prolonged because people were weary of using credit to get what they wanted.

After the war and all that shared sacrifice for the war effort faded away, the consumer economy kicked into high gear and has increased exponentially ever since.

It because the American way. The new immigrants weren’t yearning for freedom, they wanted the stuff we could get and they couldn’t.

I remember as a kid always looking forward to Christmas to find out about all the newest toys.

The car companies purposely made changes every year so that the demand would be there for cars.

And it has gotten worse.

Credit cards, second and third mortgages and we have a buy now worry about it later economy that is unsustainable.

I don’t know what to do because if we suddenly all stop buying stuff, we have a recession. If that trend sets in for a long spell, we will have a depression.

I don’t know how to stop the merry go round without all of us flinging off the ride and being scattered all over the fair grounds.

But we all know that 5G is already in the works and those new gizmos and gadgets are being developed as I write.
Think of the waste.

Think of the wreck pursuing things is doing to our society, our environment.

It’s even hit how people worship. New churches are sprouting up all over in the fertile lands of suburbia preaching salvation and divine justification for this most modern of lifestyle, suburban consumerism.

It just bothers me. Nags at my soul. As I get older I want to think I am getting better, more stable but I’m just kidding myself. I wanted a new guitar and bought one on credit. Sure I got zero percent if paid off in less than a year. And I did. That was a “victory” in the relentless drive to buy stuff NOW. A very hollow victory at that.

I know that if everyone slows down just a bit, we risk “sliding back into Recession.” Our leaders want us to spend to create more jobs so those people can spend. It’s a vicious cycle that I don’t know if we can stop.

But if we want to survive as a species, I think we have too.