Frugality
It seems like the meaning of this word has become lost in the sea of fleeting material interests (fleeting in the grand spectrum of time at least). To the Millenium Generation, frugality is seen as something poor people do--a neccessity for a stable living--but not a neccessity for everyone. Do not be mistaken, I'm not talking about just money, although thats what it often translates into. People have to have certain clothes because of the brandname attached to them, so they go right to the source instead of shopping around for a deal; I've gone into Goodwill before and found brand new items from places like the Bananna Republic for mere fractions of their retail price (I know they were new, and at a discount price because the tags were still attached). Most people can't take a half hour every day to fix a decent meal at home, so instead they go to a fast food restaurant while food sits unused in their cupboards for months sometimes. Theres a million examples of ways people are wasteful in today's society, but it doesn't register on a concious level--people's perspective of the world is too centralized around their own community, nation, ethnicity etc. They don't realize that the way they utilize resources is depriving others. We see technology as progressive and efficient, but in reality for every problem technology solves it seems like it spawns two more. Cars have made transportation quiker, but they are one of the largest contributors to air pollution, they create traffic, and deaths. Our development in food packaging has made food last longer, but for every item we buy there is at least two wrappers surrounding it, and we're creating waste at an unmanagable speed. You see what I'm getting at? Just think about it.
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I agree with you. I think a lot of us fail to either realize or acknowledge how materialistic our society has become. Advertisements infiltrate our daily lives on the sides of buses, on bathroom doors, on the Internet, and on Television. Even if we think that these messages do not effect us, in reality they do. Often times, it seems like everything we do is motivated by money and material interests. We as inviduals need to learn how to counter these materialistic messages so we can stop being so wasteful.
just to throw it in there.. a stupid question is a question not asked.
C'mon, I need a little more input than that. Tell me I'm wrong and give me legitamate reasons why, or if you agree with me let me know about some of the things you have observed. We're supposed to be having serious, critical discussions, think about what you post a little more.
I agree with you.
If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?
Scott Adams