So my mom and I were talking about money and the economy, my family is having a hard time, but she'd confident we'll be fine. But when we think about it, we have a family of 7 that manages to live off of an income of 50k tops yearly. Not quite sure how much it is.. but we've always been okay, fine, content. We can't take vacations and such, but that's a privilege not a right. We laugh at some of the things people are complaining about lately.
We've watched shows on how to shop cheap and still look good, and they're like "This suit only costs $200
" Amazing!! [/sarcasm]. And people are recently acting like thrift stores were just invented. Like they're the most amazing thing to come around, when my family has been shopping at them for years. Another lady on a news show was bragging that she can shop for a family of 4 and only spend $100. My mom can shop for a family of 7 for less.
Then we got to discussing about how ignorant people can be these days. We think the things that are ruining society is:
1. Materialism
2. Laziness
3. Selfishness
An example being... the iphone. I hate that thing. Its a bunch of crap put into one thing. Just another part of the miniaturization going on in the new millennium. You can watch TV on it! You can play games! You can read a book! You can get directions somewhere! Apparently you can check out your bank account! Oh yeah... you can call people on it too.
It's a frickin' PHONE! An expensive one at that. People have made such a big fuss over that thing. Where I lived, they had a live broadcast of its release, they were interviewing people standing in line at the apple store and cellphone stores waiting to buy it. The phone is $200 minimum at the moment... for the original. Then there's the cost of the plan, set up, fees, "apps", and other various charges. My dads friend watched a football game on his, and his bill was something like $1,500 that month. So that dudes probably spent over $2,000... for a phone. I have a simple LG, it was even free, came with the plan. All I had to do was pay the set up fees.
Why do people like the iphone so much? 1. its apple.. apple's
awthum 2. Its little gadgets, its convenient 3. Its a "must have" item. I'm a firm believer of subliminal messaging, and I wouldn't be surprised if apple uses it to sell its products, such as the ipod. The rest of the world has an ipod, I must have one too! Why do you have to get an ipod when there's one with the same amount of space but half the price? Same with the iphone... its a phone, its intended for calling people. There's one sitting next to it in the store that works fine, has the same purpose, and half the price, probably even less, so why are you getting the iphone? Its got gadgets and its convenient! Why buy a book when you can read it on your iphone?
Little do you know.. you're putting a poor little book making company out of business, and putting hundreds/thousands of people out of a job, because the iphone is "eco friendly", you no longer need paper to read, and thus not as many trees are being cut down. But, little do people realize, the radiation from the phones are disturbing the bees, breaking up colonies, thus they aren't pollinating and dying out. Bee's are a vital part of nature, just like trees. How else will you get honey for your organic herbal tea Mr.Hippie?
And yet people complain about the economy, the environment, etc... and they still spent money on this crap.
Sorry for the long read. It's just been something I've been thinking about a lot, and a reason I really dislike society over-all these days, and specifically how Americans seem to be very gullible and vulnerable to these things. I'm looking for other peoples opinions.