As is undoubtedly good practice, I don't blog about my health or finances and rarely mention family and, when I do, I usually don't use their names. One thing I don't mind stating is that my wife and I live a debt-free life. I mention this because, while it may seem hard, it's quite easy to do if you put your mind to it. I have little sympathy for those who live beyond their means and then when things get tight, they cry to the government for help, all the while sipping that $3.50 latte while driving a $35K car and then going home to watch some prime-time garbage on their plasma TV. It's one thing to be down and out due to misfortune or bad luck, but it' s quite another when it's due to irresponsibility. I don't mind when my taxes help those who need it but I don't think we should bail out those who refuse to control themselves. For us, our biggest expense is the mortgage and the second is what we put into our retirement accounts. We haven't had a car payment in five or six years and don't plan on having another one, even though we plan on buying a vehicle this year. Also, last year we donated about 1% of our income to charities.
Anyway, I have lost 11 lbs this year. Late last year I started to cut salt from my diet. This quickly eliminates a lot of foods, especially the processed stuff. I consciously strive for the five a day, with a salad with lunch and dinner, an apple or carrots for a snack, a glass of juice, and then a vegetable with dinner. By actively reducing my salt intake, I eat much better. Of course, the occasional indulgence is fine; a good hotdog or cheesesteak is necessary to maintain sanity. I am far from perfect, though. I should really cut down on the coffee and the beer too and I really should stop using the weather as an excuse for not exercising. Once the weather warms, I will get back into biking and do my regular six mile ride two or three times a week.
But don't fret! I lived most of my twenties completely opposite! I was a terrible eater, didn't exercise, and really wasn't too responsible with my finances, although I did start planning for my retirement before I turned 30. It's never too late to make an assessment and cut those expenses and look to improve your diet. Too many Americans aren't planning for the future - financially and dietarily - we need to change that, now! Within 20 years when there is no Social Security and no money for the government to pay any health costs, those who did not plan ahead will be in for a rude awakening, as will those of us who did are - because we'll be the ones who get the bill. Personal responsibility is an invisible hand - the more who do it, the stronger society becomes. The less who do it, cause a burden on the few who do and that will eventually create social unrest on a major scale.
Global Warming will not doom us, we will do it ourselves. Overeating and overspending are the real deadly evils and, unlike the earth's climate, we can control what we spend and what we eat. We don't need an economic stimulus, we need a personal responsibility stimulus.
I know I am not perfect; far from it and when people get up on their high horse, it's usually met with "who are you to tell me what to do" and they are right to a degree. Once some aspect of society breaking down gets to the stage where standing on the soapbox and making a call for action is all one can do, it usually means we're too late. Changing habits is difficult and complicated by the fact that our leaders tell us we shouldn't have to do anything difficult and that we are entitled to everything (material, that is) by virtue of simply being here. Therefore, we need to lead by doing. Extend your invisible hand to others, especially to children, through example.
Overeating and overspending are the real deadly evils and ... we can control what we spend and what we eat.
Agreed, but ... corporations profit from and drive wasteful and excessive habits. That is no product of left-wing university professors, it's documented baldly in business manuals like Nystrom's Economics of Fashion.
One's outlook on life and its purposes may greatly modify one's attitude toward goods in which fashion is prominent. At the present time, not a few people in western nations have departed from old-time standards of religion and philosophy, and having failed to develop forceful views to take their places, hold to something that may be called, for want of a better name, a philosophy of futility. This view of life (or lack of a view of life) involves a question as to the value of motives and purposes of the main human activities. There is ever a tendency to challenge the purpose of life itself. This lack of purpose in life has an effect on consumption similar to that of having a narrow life interest, that is, in concentrating human attention on the more superficial things that comprise much of fashionable consumption.
The attitude is fostered by the industrial world, and taken advantage of shamelessly by marketers. So ... why don't they shoulder any blame in this post? I'd say they're accessories to the crime.
and taken advantage of shamelessly by marketers. So ... why don't they shoulder any blame in this post
I don't buy into the 'everyone is a victim' BS*. If you can't resist the urge to voluntarily flush your money down the toilet then that's no one's fault but yours.
Secondly, a lot of people make their living by marketing. They have a right to try to sell their wares. Often, marketing will convey a message about a product that someone really needs. An educated consumer is a disciplined consumer.
Someone once told me: "a business' biggest problem is that there are people out there with money that we don't have; thus they need to devise a way to get it."
*However, when it comes to government, we're all victims of their malfeasance. Funny thing is that most politicians use the same tactics as marketers. As least most marketers are honest about where you money is going to go when you give it to them.
I don't buy into the 'everyone is a victim' BS*.
Well, if other people are easily suckered in by ads, the system it creates brings everyone else down.
An analogy: people are wrong for believing psychics on television, but the psychics themselves are still major douches who bring down the rationality of our culture. I have as much respect for corporate marketing as I do for pseudoscience, and for the same reason.
If you can't resist the urge to voluntarily flush your money down the toilet then that's no one's fault but yours.
I'm a fleshless skeleton who owns way less than the average middle-class American tbqh
Often, marketing will convey a message about a product that someone really needs. An educated consumer is a disciplined consumer.
Most advertisements, as suggested by Nystrom, are for things that aren't really needed.
Someone once told me: "a business' biggest problem is that there are people out there with money that we don't have; thus they need to devise a way to get it."
I find these kinds of problems really uninteresting.
Most advertisements, as suggested by Nystrom, are for things that aren't really needed.
yes
I find these kinds of problems really uninteresting.
...and it's worse if you ever have to work in a job where you need to do sell. Some people thrive on it and good for them but I could never sell anything. When they told me they didn't need it, my belief system kicked in and I agreed with them. No amount of training or warnings could ever change my mind.
Most advertisements, as suggested by Nystrom, are for things that aren't really needed.
yes
I find these kinds of problems really uninteresting.
...and it's worse if you ever have to work in a job where you need to sell. Some people thrive on it and good for them but I could never sell anything. When they told me they didn't need it, my belief system kicked in and I agreed with them. No amount of training or warnings could ever change my mind.
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