So, head on over to Financial Armageddon and read this post and accompanying comments (yes, I am there as well) as this post is a refinement and continuation of the thought there.
I am very conflicted about this post. The earlier posted comments reflect my sense of irony (and I do so hope that Mr Panzer did intend this as ironic). But the irony reflects the real desire of a significant part of the population to maintain appearances and petty vanities in the face of the cruel reality of the foreseable future.
So many people are so lost to the dream that they are incapable of seeing that their desired lifestyles (whole foods and cable) are behind us. This post is a very real indictment of the people who will be most impacted by the problems ahead of us. Note the above picture. Googling the "whole foods produce aisle" came up with this one. Note the perfect little frau and the the perfect little kinder selecting fresh and wholesome foods from the cornucopia. A slice of pure heaven produces by the Madison Avenue dream factory.
The lifestyles of unlimited choice and relatively inconsequential costs that everyone seems to insist upon are no longer available to the masses. A completely comfortable lifestyle can be easily achieved, yet it doesn't seem to be adequate for those who have seen been higher up on the consumption mountain.
Great veggies will soon revert to seasonal from the garden. No problem there, just an adjustment in how you get them and Whole Foods will be sadly out of the loop. I don't see a problem, but some folks seem to think that the sweat equity of access to foods is more appropriately left to lower-status Mexicans and corporations.
Consider also the response.
A civil engineer going back to school? What the hell for? Does she think that more education, with a large tab attached, probably paid for with student loans is going to pull her out of this?
This kind of stuff just isn't going to work anymore. The folks will have to take less, the husbands will have to get a job, the kidlets will have to not be little proto-yuppies.
They'll do just fine.
They are just going to have to spend some time in the rain.
1 comment:
The young lady has a very pretty smile.
Engineers in building construction have been getting killed. In theory Civil would pick up with the residential market expansion, but there are alrady too many developed sites left over from the bubble.
Post a Comment