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zipplewrath

(16,646 posts)
5. A different description
Tue Feb 14, 2012, 09:29 AM
Feb 2012

I think you can describe it a different way. It's not so much about the urgency, but about the tendency to value the immediate outcome, over one that is built over time. There is a dominant subculture, possibly a plurality, that does not value long term effort to develop and achieve longer term goals. I see it in everything from the subtle to the substantial.

The speed with which our work force willingly gave up the "pension" system is astounding. Retirement pensions were the bedrock of the "retired middle class". It got traded in for 401K's and stock options because individuals wanted to be more "mobile" which was a metaphor for "transient".

Heck, look at social norms. Go to a social setting and try to "tell a story" of any type. If you take more that 3 sentences, the "audience" will stop listening. Look at our "social media" in all of its forms and it is focused on short, quick, immediate. I don't see it as much as "instant gratification" as it is that people presume that anything that takes time has no value. Meals, long the staple of social interaction from the potluck to the funeral wake, have become focused on the microwave.

Cars are leased and not bought. The 30 year mortgage exists because people don't expect to ever own their own homes. The "starter home" is a thing of the past because we're suppose to always live in a home like our parents had by the time they were 50.

For goodness sakes we have "speed dating", we have "it's just lunch". We can't even invest an evening in the process of finding a life partner. For all we love DU, the conversations are anything but lengthy, spare maybe the pissing contests. The "Latest Page" is a common place for people to visit, far more than a subject forum. The Greatest Page consists of long threads, but not necessarily "deep". Alot of comments to the OP, not necessarily deep threads exploring the subject.

That's probably the key phrase here. For all we've supposedly become the "investment culture" where we all have 401K's and mutual funds, there isn't really any sense of valuing an "investment". We don't build businesses, we "spin them off" and sell them as quickly as possible. We "flipped" houses, not build homes. We don't fix our TV's and appliances because they are just something disposable.

There's an old expression about the man that plants a tree:

A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.
-- Elton Trueblood (1900-1994)


That's what's missing, or changed. We don't invest in our own lives, or ourselves. We have a president that wants to build bridges and trains for the future, for a body politic that wants 5G in 9 months, ignorant of the amount of time it took to develop the internet to begin with. We have a space program in total disarray because you can't hardly set, and pursue 2 year goals, much less 10. And we build houses that need major repairs in 5 years, because it lowered the down payment at the original sale.

No sense of investment, in a culture desperately in need of investing.
Well life is bringing it all to a halt now lunatica Feb 2012 #1
I got to have it now... Historic NY Feb 2012 #2
Sorry--- trumad Feb 2012 #3
+1. nt SammyWinstonJack Feb 2012 #17
A lot of it had to do with falling wages, forced low interest rates, and the financialization mmonk Feb 2012 #4
A different description zipplewrath Feb 2012 #5
Good addition to what I was thinking... WCGreen Feb 2012 #6
Agreed. Myrina Feb 2012 #7
I, quite often, find myself shaking my head though maybe I am old school. Bonhomme Richard Feb 2012 #8
I agree (and a personal whine) laundry_queen Feb 2012 #26
Thanks for sharing. We didn't do anything for us while the kids were still at home. Bonhomme Richard Feb 2012 #30
It's a mystery to me. pamela Feb 2012 #9
I think that extends to corporations making decisions, too. MineralMan Feb 2012 #10
That is directly attributable to the decision makers taking stock options instead of WCGreen Feb 2012 #11
Those factors are certainly part of it, for sure. MineralMan Feb 2012 #12
Thanks for sharing Newest Reality Feb 2012 #13
The US workers' standard of living has been HALVED in 40 years. Romulox Feb 2012 #14
I solved my need for instant gratification by learning to garden and grow my own veggies... Javaman Feb 2012 #15
This is, at least in part, due to the force feeding of corporate propaganda to the population 24/7, MadHound Feb 2012 #16
Agreed 100% laundry_queen Feb 2012 #27
The problem in this country is capitalism TBF Feb 2012 #18
great post! and one Bluerthanblue Feb 2012 #19
Hmm. Doesn't seem true. Trillo Feb 2012 #20
Excuse me, but that isn't "labor", MadHound Feb 2012 #21
Some people falsely believe that work isn't work, partcularly when the state compulses the work. Trillo Feb 2012 #23
Getting an education does require work on your part, MadHound Feb 2012 #24
We agree that school is work. Trillo Feb 2012 #31
I disagree. grantcart Feb 2012 #22
I sat in the airport waiting to pick up my husband from his flight last fall, and TwilightGardener Feb 2012 #25
Same here... WCGreen Feb 2012 #28
I think were so far out we may never make it back raouldukelives Feb 2012 #29
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