I Want It!
This was brought to my attention today, and as it is in keeping with the holiday spirit and an interesting juxtaposition to yesterday's post on food insufficiency, I was compelled to share it
Behold, the American Express Daily Wish site -- where various discretionary goodies are presented for your perusal, and if you like, you may hit the "I Want It" button to grab the treat for yourself.
I want it -- the mantra of so many of our our countrymen; not, I need. Doesn't this strike people as even the teeniest bit distasteful? It reminded me of the "Me Meter" at the now-defunct site where a West Coast friend wrote, MyPrimeTime. Even at the height of the dot.com bubble, he found the solipsism a bit wrenching.
Behold, the American Express Daily Wish site -- where various discretionary goodies are presented for your perusal, and if you like, you may hit the "I Want It" button to grab the treat for yourself.
I want it -- the mantra of so many of our our countrymen; not, I need. Doesn't this strike people as even the teeniest bit distasteful? It reminded me of the "Me Meter" at the now-defunct site where a West Coast friend wrote, MyPrimeTime. Even at the height of the dot.com bubble, he found the solipsism a bit wrenching.
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posted by Lisa at 7:36 AM
6 Comments:
Hopefully people will achieve some sense of fiscal responsibility after our Financial Bump In The Road. Realizing what you want and what you need are two separate things. Keeping my fingers crossed.
I marvel at people like my father, who grew up as a young lad in the Great Depression. The tales he's told me of those days and how his family survived are straight out of The Grapes of Wrath. As a consequence he's really a self-sufficient man. Think of all the things you would pay somebody to do for you around your house and he can probably do it. Because he didn't have the money to call a repairman he was forced to learn the skills to survive. Carpentry,plumbing,bricklaying,car repair,farming,hunting,fishing, if he can put his two hands on something he can probably do it.
Maybe after our financial troubles we'll learn how to do more for ourselves. Maybe we'll learn how to do more with less. Maybe we'll learn to know our neighbors, to act like neighbors, to help our neighbors. Maybe.
Yep, I learned a new word today and thanks to the iphone dictionary I know what it means. Every bubble from S&L, Dot Com, and ws it just amazes me with thing people say they need. That's all over except for the very few.
jo6pac
Barca,
Yes, I've heard the same stories from my parents and grandparents and their friends. Life was terribly harsh. In perspective, even most poor families today have comforts that would have been unheard of then.
We as a nation have grown flabby. Most cannot imagine life without air conditioning or cable t.v. How would they have gotten by?
I am afraid I don't buy the fiction that people are growing better, more tolerant, more kind. On an individual level, yes, and most people grow somewhat throughout their life cycle. But for the next generation, the lessons must learned anew, and our society as presently constructed does not encourage moral traits like generosity, humility, kindness or frugality.
We read the stats that college kids are volunteering at record numbers, but the fact is, it is compulsory either for admission or continuance in certain programs. It looks good if you've worked with poor people before applying for a Fulbright.
Well I was raised to "do it yourself" and I am forever grateful to my dad for showing me the best way to live is to "learn how". In the months before he died he tiled the bathroom in his house and he did not know a thing about it before he started...The key word here is effort. You can do almost anything if you put in the time...Also I would rather show you how much I care than tell you about it. Actions speak louder than words.
"How does one become a saint?" I asked the Sage..."Simple" she said, "Take only what you need and share the rest without reservation."
RangerHazen,
I, too, was raised to be self-sufficient. One can learn to do anything, if one is willing to put in the time and effort to learn how.
I would rather have actions than words (though a little expression in concordance with action and feelings is a good thing.)
"Who you are is speaking so loudly that I can't hear what you're saying" (Emerson).
My father also had the do it yourself ethic but one of the things I wish I'd learned better from him was not buying anything unless you had the cash to pay for it. If he couldn't pay for it he did without until he could. I can still remember his distain for having to get a credit card so he could rent a car on a trip. Also many funny stories of barginning for good deals with cash.
Somewhere along the line we've lost that fiscal responsibility.
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