The Decaying Evolution of Education...

[tonyb]

It's hard to overstate the effects of the personal automobile and the post-War population boom on our physical and social landscape.

There were about 140 million Americans in 1945; there are now well more than twice that many of us.

A typical person doesn't buy an overflowing shopping cart full of groceries without an automobile with which to transport it home.

Digital technologies may well affect our patterns of living and working in ways every bit as profound as the effects of the automobile. Some of those effects are easily foreseeable, and some will likely catch us off guard. I can see how new communications technologies might breathe new life into smaller and more remote locales. Such technologies have already fueled a resurgence in "artisanal" (don't shoot me Lizzie, I'm just the messenger) enterprises. Makers of, say, custom front-quarter horsehide jackets or beaver-felt fedoras couldn't survive without a strong online presence. And such is becoming more and more the reality with mass-market bricks-and-mortar retailers.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Lean and Mean.....Family of 4 Poverty level is between 25 and 35 K a year..

I think you'll find it's around $22,5OO.....................& I was not refering to folk on the poverty line.
If you look at the cars in an average supermarket carpark, poverty isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

It is only convenient so the worker can afford more time in slave labor. Whereas before, families had the luxury in this country for only one parent to work, nowadays both must to sustain any normal type of lifestyle. And it is getting worse by the year. Convenience in this regard is learned behavior, not natural.

Are you speaking for yourself or for the oppressed in this world.

 

[tonyb]

I have more experience with getting by on very little money than I care to recall, and even I wonder just how the hell a family of four gets by on 25 grand a year.

I can see it working for those who own their doublewide free and clear, as well as the dirt beneath it, and who are able to repair their own car(s) and grow their own produce (relying on rainfall and perhaps water out of the creek; buying "city" water would be far too costly), and who cut and split their own firewood and who, to put it plainly, live in ways few of use live these days, or care to, or are realistically able to.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I know families who live on that. Fifteen percent of the population in my town lives below the poverty line, and it isn't pretty. Some of them are families, and they have a marginally better time of it than single people who qualify for fewer benefits and assistance programs. I know single people, with college degrees, who work two jobs, who are living on less than $20,000 a year. Sometimes they live six to a house in a roommate situation, sometimes they live with their parents well into their thirties, and sometimes they live in squalid $500 a month apartments where they''re worried about the cannabis-oil cooker downstairs blowing up the house.

And some of them don't even have that. I know a well-educated woman my age who, basically, lives in the public library during the day and in her car at night. Which is a pretty brutal way to live in Maine in winter.

 

[philosophygirl78]

Are you speaking for yourself or for the oppressed in this world.

No, not myself... I am actually very proud of my accomplishments which came with much hard work and sacrifice and I do not need anyone to support me or my son. But I know a great many people who simply cannot make it on one income and have a decent lifestyle. And that's sad.

 

[sheeplady]

The median income per household where I live is $26,000 a year. Granted, we're in a low rent district, but half of households are making under $26,000 a year. A large portion of our community is mobile homes- very old mobile homes.

 

[philosophygirl78]

I lived on cheesy potatoes, imitation crab and ramen noodles from the age of 16 until I finished college. At which point, I lived off of half my salary and saved the other half. I had a bit more healthy lifestyle, but I was very poor. In 5 years, I had saved up enough to buy my first condo by myself. Did the similar for the next 10 years and got to buy a house. Now, I still save about a 1/4 of my paycheck. I don't have much to go on extravagant vacations or buy fancy jewelry, but I have a nice new car, my own home, and hopefully a boat one day soon!

Anything is possible if you try. I was born in LA and my parents were very poor at that time. They moved to Argentina to make a better living when I was just shy of 16 and I decided to stay. I started with nothing at 16. I worked for every penny and I am proud.

I got a scholarship to the university, I got out private student loans to do study abroad programs, and I got myself 2 degrees with no help from the government.

This is to me, the best country in the world. I could not have done that in most other countries.

 

[tonyb]

Gotta wonder how many people living below the poverty line have resources invisible to the data collectors.

We've all heard that people in one poverty-stricken country or another live on the equivalent of, like, a buck a day. We are to take such a statistic as a clear and "relatable" illustration of the abject poverty under which so much of humanity struggles. Hell, we are to think, you can't buy so much as a hamburger for that much money.

Not to diminish the challenges facing these people, but such analogies carry more than a whiff of an apples-and-oranges comparison. The fact that people actually do live under such circumstances, however meager that existence might be, is all the evidence needed to know that their world -- its climate, social and meteorological -- is very different from ours.

 

[LizzieMaine]

This is to me, the best country in the world. I could not have done that in most other countries.

(You could have gone to college for free in Argentina.)

I grew up on welfare, ate more than my share of Spam, canned peanut butter, heart meat, tripe, and mackerel I caught off the town wharf with a dropline, have worked for wages since I was 13 years old, never went to college, have worked as a bookkeeper, a factory hand, a sign painter, a meat cutter, a cartoonist, a printer, a radio news reporter and editor, a dialect comedian, a theatre manager/projectionist/technician, and as a professional writer for over thirty years, have published a book, quite a number of articles, and a couple thousand radio scripts, have appeared as an expert on broadcasting history on television, on radio and on film in the US and the UK, own my house -- as long as I keep paying the bank -- have $3000 in my savings account, and my most valuable posession is a 75-year-old used car.

And the thing is, that's really all I need or want. A place to sleep, some good friends, and a cat. I don't take particular special pride in anything I've accomplished because it was accomplished largely thru the luck of the genetic draw -- I was born with certain aptitudes that I was able to parlay into a modest living, and that's all, really, that I ever wanted. It doesn't make me noble to have "worked hard" nor does it make me particuarly special. Hundreds of millions of other people work just as hard every day of the year.

But I think I could have accomplished what I have in Canada just as well as I did it here -- possibly even easier, because I wouldn't have had to sell my house to pay my medical bills and then go thru all the hassle of buying it back.

 

[kaiser]

It's in German, but the main point is that less is more. Always chasing the Dollar, Euro, or Peso for that matter is not really the name of the game. Use the skills that you have to the best of your ability, and be satisfied with what you have.

Eines Tages fällt dir auf,
dass du 99% nicht brauchst.
Du nimmst all den Ballast
und schmeisst ihn weg,
Denn es reist sich besser,
mit leichtem Gepäck.
Du siehst dich um in deiner Wohnung,
Siehst ein Kabinett aus Sinnlosigkeiten.
Siehst das Ergebnis von kaufen
und kaufen von Dingen,
von denen man denkt
man würde sie irgendwann brauchen.
Siehst die Klamotten, die du
nie getragen hast und die du
nie tragen wirst und trotzdem
bleiben sie bei dir
Zu viel Spinnweben und zu viel Kram
Zu viel Altlast in Tupperwaren
Und eines Tages fällt dir auf
dass du 99% davon nicht brauchst
Du nimmst all den Ballast
und schmeisst ihn weg
Denn es reist sich besser
mit leichtem Gepäck
mit leichtem Gepäck
Nicht nur ein kleiner
Hofstaat aus Plastik auch
die Armee aus Schrott und Neurosen
auf deiner Seele wächst immer mehr
hängt immer öfter Blutsaugend an deiner Kehle
Wie Geil die Vorstellung wär
das alles loszuwerden
Alles auf einen Haufen
mit Brennpaste und Zunder
und es lodert und brennt so schön
Ein Feuer
in Kilometern noch zu seh'n
Und eines Tages fällt dir auf
dass du 99% davon nicht brauchst
Also nimmst all den Ballast
und schmeisst ihn weg
Denn es reist sich besser
mit Leichtem Gepäck
mit leichtem Gepäck
Ab heut
nur noch die wichtigen Dinge
Ab heut
nur noch die wichtigen Dinge
Ab heut
nur noch die wichtigen Dinge
Ab heut
nur noch leichtes Gepäck
Und eines Tages
fällt dir auf
Es ist wenig was du wirklich brauchst
Also nimmst du den Ballast
und schmeisst ihn weg
denn es lebt sich besser
so viel besser
Mit leichtem Gepäck
All der Dreck von gestern
All die Narben
All die Rechnungen die viel zu lang offen rumlagen
Lass sie los, schmeiss sie einfach weg
Denn es reist sich besser
mit leichtem Gepäck

 

[Bushman]

Well, the forum won't keep this out of my comment box, so I guess I'm going to have to quote this!

My refrigerator door is dedicated to mustard. I have probably 40 different jars of it any time, though it's out of love of mustard, not out of fear of running out. Though that would unsettling. My wife thinks I have a problem.

Having 40 varieties of mustard isn't necessarily a bad thing. Mustard is good!

 

[tonyb]

There's much to be said for being happy with what one already has. And I am, in the material sense. I'm sure I could be every bit as happy with more, but I'm not confident I necessarily would be.

It's been snowing here pretty much all day, and it likely will continue through tonight and well into tomorrow. We got heat, and running water, and food in the fridge and the pantry. And I just took a nice, hot bath. Got nowhere but here to be, so I'll stay in and watch the Iowa Comedy Revue on the TV.

Still, I have ambitions that may make me richer, but my interest in pursuing them has little to do with money.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, the forum won't keep this out of my comment box, so I guess I'm going to have to quote this! Having 40 varieties of mustard isn't necessarily a bad thing. Mustard is good!

If there's one thing I don't have in my life that I do want, it's one of those giant barrels of Gulden's they have at the ballpark. With the pump on top!

 

[philosophygirl78]

There's much to be said for being happy with what one already has. And I am, in the material sense. I'm sure I could be every bit as happy with more, but I'm not confident I necessarily would be.

It's been snowing here pretty much all day, and it likely will continue through tonight and well into tomorrow. We got heat, and running water, and food in the fridge and the pantry. And I just took a nice, hot bath. Got nowhere but here to be, so I'll stay in and watch the Iowa Comedy Revue on the TV.

Still, I have ambitions that may make me richer, but my interest in pursuing them has little to do with money.

That sounds peaceful. Peace = Wealth.

 

[tonyb]

I don't feel like looking it up it right now, but I recall some research indicating that people's overall satisfaction with their earthly existence increases with income, to a point. The most dramatic increases happen as people climb the lower rungs on the income ladder, which makes perfect sense to those of us who know how unsatisfying life can be when we fear not having enough scratch to tend to our immediate obligations.

All of which is to say that I like money, but not so much that it is the focus of my life. But of course, not having enough money puts money into sharp focus as surely as blindly pursuing material wealth puts money into sharp focus.

 

[tonyb]

"Blindly" and "sharp focus."

Sure wish I could edit my own posts. But ever since we went to this new platform I've been unable to. Apparently my screen differs from most y'all's. I have no edit option.

 

[LizzieMaine]

At the bottom far left of the window for each post -- do you see a button/box with an icon of an eraser or a pencil or some inscrutable thing I can't figure out with my lousy vision on it? If you don't see one, please advise, and I'll alert the Service Department.

As for money/possessions/stuff, "getting ahead" was never presented as any kind of an important goal for anyone I knew growing up. You worked to support yourself and keep your head above water, but it never occured to anyone in my family or in our immediate circle of acquaintance that you were supposed to be constantly trying to get into a bigger pool. It simply wasn't a concept that we ever talked about or considered, so I've always felt kind of sorry for those who feel like they have to devote their lives to keeping ahead of somebody else. All it gets you in the end is a sunnier spot in the graveyard.

 

[tonyb]

Thanks. I have no such icon. So someone who understands these things ought be summoned.

Like you, and untold millions of others, I am a scion of the working class. Rare are the members of earlier generations of "my people" who attained much by way of personal wealth.

It wasn't for lack of trying, though. But never having had money, or even acquaintances who did, the mechanics of wealth building was a learn- (or not) as-you-go proposition. Mostly they didn't.

My recently departed dad (technically my stepfather) always wished to be a big shot. Alas, he confused the trappings of material success with true material success. Hence the expensive toys on which he squandered money that would have been much more effectively expended on less showy things. He had boats. He had nice cars. He even had a Beechcraft Bonanza, briefly. (I suspect the airplane got repo'ed, or, as was euphemistically said about other deals he walked away from well before the terms were satisfied, it got "handed back.")

He talked a good game, though.

 

[sheeplady]

My grandfather, who was very much working class (was a foreman in a mill with an 8th grade education) owned a plane. He restored it (being a mechanic on the side) and flew it weekends.

Strange, but as much as I'd associate owning a plane with wealth as an adult, I never associated him having a plane as being "wealthy." The man never owned a car that wasn't used in his life and their house was the size of a postage stamp.