Quote:
Originally Posted by historycircus
While the short term may be filled with dangerous absurdities the likes of which we have yet to imagine, I never lose hope that we will someday move beyond it all.
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We will move beyond it and be relatively "all right" in the long term, but the old style of living out of our means is done and gone, forever.
Keep in mind that people on forums like this (and others) take a "worst case" scenario to the world view and that isn't realistic. We generally think that everything is going to collapse, there will be looting and rioting on all the streets and billions will die due to starvation and violence or exposure to the elements.
The United States will come out of this economic crisis in much better shape than the "worst case" scenarios people predict.
There wont be "millions dying" in the US, Death Camps, etc, etc.
What people fail to realize at the end of the day is that Rich and Poor alike, we are all connected and nobody in the West wants things to collapse. Even the East doesn't want us to collapse, though they do want more power and influence.
The world WILL find a way to "save" our system. There are very smart people out there working on this and they will do it.
Now does that mean we are going to go back to how we have lived the last 15 years? No, that is done. The world is going to change.
In 10 or 15 years from now you will look back and say "ya it got bad but we survived".
This is what is coming:
Lower living standards. It wont be third world but it wont be like it has been. People will not have 14 Plasma TV's in the home, 3 Cell Phones for the kids, Eat out 14 times a week, drive Hummers to go to work, have 6000 sq ft homes with granite counter tops, etc, etc.
So what if we dont have all that ****, did it really make a difference to our lives anyways?
No, we still have an empty whole in our soul due to lack of purpose.
There are MANY MANY benefits that we will gain from living a simpler life and people refuse to look at these benefits, but they are there and they are very tangible.
Community matters
Family matters
Friends matters
Spirituality matters
The environment matters.
There is a gaping whole that fills EVERY person in this world and the continual pursuit of more "stuff" only fills it for a short time. The next few years will teach people to fill that whole with what matters, not what doesn't matter.
We will be better off for it.