expert1221 (July 30, 2008 at 6:52 pm)

The average worker works from Janurary to July just to pay his income taxes. The rest of the year your actually working for yourself. So Really, it's 40 days in a half a year buying junk you don't need. I became a Minimalist years ago. If I don't have the cash to buy something, than I don't need it, and you will have the cash if you don't go through life spending half your money on finance charges.

jeremyhattingh (July 14, 2008 at 6:30 pm)

i think part of the problem is the fact that even though the yanks KNOW theres something deeply wrong with their cultute, they really dont have a mature opinion about an alternative, because any other culture is "gobbled up" , chewed, and spat out by their media before average person has a chance to digest it.

dcs5150 (July 13, 2008 at 8:59 pm)

Countrywide is FINE! Bear Stearns is FINE! Fannie and Freddie are FINE! Lehman Bros. is FINE! Washington Mutual is FINE! The U.S. consumer is FINE! The dollar is FINE! $20 per gallon of gas is FINE! Our imploding economy is FINE! The constitution is FINE! U.S. sovereignty is FINE!

ahoblit (July 13, 2008 at 8:19 pm)

man, when I was a kid we went out to eat like once or twice a month..we always ate at home...and sbux? forget about it, we had that coffee maker that started automatically in the morning, and I always mowed the lawn..it's called a chore. Did we really get that spoiled?, geez..

SuperCape (July 13, 2008 at 12:34 pm)

Thanks god you got it!After some hundred years of destroing lifestyle, you, americans, are starting to think and live like the rest of the world!!...can't belive it...

999manman (July 12, 2008 at 12:10 am)

You nailed it with your discussion of clutter and how it affects us. I couldn't agree more! I thought it was just my childhood family that were pack rats...apparently everyone is...at least according to the number of storage rental buildings constantly going up around here. My mother spent hundreds a year to store stuff that, after her death, barely netted half the cost of rental when we sold it. Pathetic!

RevolutionaryJam (July 11, 2008 at 7:37 pm)

i think you miss the point thoughasides from the fact that in real life it isn't necessarily the person who worked hardest who gets the coconutthe ideal of socialism, and I amn't one, is resource based. Lets see what resources we have first then we do what is necessary to feed and clothe everyone that needs fed and clothed, in the process we put everyone in jobs to accomplish this etc. it's not an immoral foundation for a society based on theft, thats just the way the elite use it

freezazoid (July 11, 2008 at 6:58 pm)

to RevJam's last comment... even if socialism worked perfectly and capitalism did not work at all, just the fact that I believe people should be free to do what they want with their money... I'll use the island scenario again: If five people were on an island whatever goods anyone collects should be there's to keep. Socialism would use muscle to deprive the person who worked the hardest of what he collected that day and distribute it to everyone. That's bullshit to me. My work...my coconuts.

eincali (July 11, 2008 at 6:39 pm)

"Wow, want an award?"Please, if you feel the need to comment negatively on what I say, try harder than this.Stop being so easily offended, I was not talking to you, whoever you are. I was referring to the people in news story. Trust me, they don't live an apartment.I will say however, apartment or not, if you were offended you're probably a gluttonous shitpile.Award please.

RevolutionaryJam (July 11, 2008 at 2:58 pm)

it sounds great but I'm not sure it's true to lifethe jobs change, but not always for the better, the mathematics of economics doesn't take into account the squidgey maleableness of the human spiriti think both socialism and free market economics have their merrits and pitfalls as ideologies and unfortunately the powers that be are beating us with nastiest aspects of both their right and left hands