When and why did we become so wasteful?
When I started this post, I wondered if the word I was looking for was sacrifice, but as I thought about it longer, wasteful seemed the more appropriate term. Think of all the competitive consumption that we engaged in during the turn of the 21st century. It was not a mistake to re-fashion the term "Gilded Age." And as was discovered during the Great Depression, "gilded" was exactly the proper term, but I digress.
Perhaps this recession is a potential gift to our society. We've heard talk of being able to push the reset button, and begin again, whether it's the American economy or relations with Russia or Iran. I hit the reset button in my life, when I decided to leave a job, not knowing that the bottom would fall out economically a few weeks later. I have several friends, who in some way or another, are experiencing changes that will afford them opportunities to be less wasteful in their lives.
I hope that as we emerge from these rough economic times that we will come away with good lessons learned that help us to be less wasteful, fiscally and personally. Let's hope that our government will learn to be less wasteful in the long run as well.
2 comments:
I love your optimistic outlook on life.
I lost my "career" job almost 2 years ago. The company went out of business.
I got laid off from my "oh well, it's work" job 6 months ago.
I've been back working limited hours at crap pay for a little over a month, with the prospect of another full layoff looming.
But now I see that what has really happened is that I've been "afforded the opportunity to be less wasteful in my life."
Oh Lord, please don't send me any more such opportunities for a while. Please?
(I do see your point Free, just couldn't help a bit of rueful lol here.)
Scott, man I feel you. This is just my way of trying to cope with struggle. When I left my job, I'd no idea that things would turn out so rough economically. I am struggling as a consultant, and have been marginally lucky only because my previous job had me running around the country. Most of my consulting has been away from DC, and it ain't been a whole lot. My fam has been particularly generous.
All I can say is that I hope your situation changes for the better as soon as possible. Words, I know, but heart felt man.
Post a Comment