spotting anti-materialism

[aaron]

Re: spotting anti-materialism

" Live as if you made $50,000 a year, he suggests"

So, a family of 4 should "cut back" to 200K a year? I am not sure this a sacrifice we can make. The pain and suffering might be unbearable.

[BK]

Re: spotting anti-materialism - Govt influenced our Material World

I love David Brooks article second paragraph "People bought bulbous vehicles like Hummers and Suburbans. The rule was, The Smaller the Woman, the Bigger the Car — so you would see a 90-pound lady in tennis whites driving a 4-ton truck with enough headroom to allow her to drive with her doubles partner perched atop her shoulders."

Mr Brooks neglects to talk about the 1996 IRS Law that allowed people with a business to depreciate these large vehicles - if you had any sort of business - you would have been an idiot not to try to take advantage of the Tax Law.

Did Government offer incentive for people like me that drove cars that got 25 miles per gallon or More No.

Did Congress/President Clinton/Bush/or Obama offer a Tax credit because my family drives fuel efficient cars and we don't get rid of cars until they hit 180K-204K miles - NOPE.

The Government had a great influence in creating our Material World....in 2004 you looked like an idiot if you didn't want to buy a Big Home - lots of Tax breaks for Mortgage Renters and low interest rates brought to you by the FED, and lots of help from Fannie and Freddie.

Hopefully, people are waking from their Economic Hangovers and realizing that the US Government was supplying the Beer Funnel and Free Shots that created this mess.

[Guest]

Re: spotting anti-materialism

"... the Gross National Product measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile..."

Robert F. Kennedy, 1968

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4110


The two top videos no longer work, but the parts I, II, and III [mistaken link] of RFK's last speech before he was assassinated do still work. See sidebar.

Spoken by a man living on a trust fund raised in mansions who spent his boyhood summers on yachts and who got his job from a family member.

Sorry for the bump, but this shit is priceless.

[mooncliff]

Re: spotting anti-materialism

I remember JFK being assassinated. Then MLK, and RFK, and the Apollo landing, civil rights, the Vietnam war.

The 60s were total hell in their way, but I have never seen a decade like that since. It was just amazing.

[Thailandnotes]

Re: spotting anti-materialism

Robert Kennedy is a very interesting figure. If you write him off simply because he was a Kennedy or because of his initial reluctance to throw his weight behind the civil rights movement, you are missing some of the most dynamic US history.

[shiny!]

Re: spotting anti-materialism

I remember JFK being assassinated. Then MLK, and RFK, and the Apollo landing, civil rights, the Vietnam war.

The 60s were total hell in their way, but I have never seen a decade like that since. It was just amazing.

My mother pulled me out of kindergarten to see JFK's motorcade in San Antonio, the day before he was assassinated in Dallas. I remember seeing a pink pillbox hat zooming by.

You listed all the things I remember about that decade. I would just add: watching The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. It truly was an amazing time.