On credit
The credit crunch, or crisis, it doesn’t matter so long as a little alliteration is involved, is of great concern.
People are going to lose houses, their savings, their jobs and their televisions… people already have…
I find however, that it is times like these where the best things about humans start happening again. It is assumed that people socialise less when they are poor… that they need to be spending money on drinks and food to enjoy each other’s company. It’s not true of course.
Your friends are free and their company makes you feel better.
Admittedly, drink will still probably involved, but it’s more likely to be some home-brewed concoction, bought by the gallon and created in a basement and it’ll do the trick. Or perhaps it’s time to crack open those bottles of strange alcohol that have been sat in your drinks cupboard for a decade. Unwanted gifts and specialities brought back from abroad – there is almost always aniseed involved.
And this increase in oddity alcohol and socialisation leads to another great thing. People talk.
Sure, you have to go through the same social pleasantries each time, but when you socialise enough you run out of them… that’s when you really start talking. As you know, talking leads to many a thing, it creates ideas and movements, it makes art and solves problems.
You’re much more likely to have social meals too, if you think about it. It’s far cheaper, and much more fun, if you club together to make one big meal for everyone than it is to cook ten or so individual meals. You’ll save energy too, only warming up the oven once. There’s a good chance too, that your diet will be healthier – most large sized meals require the bulk of vegetables. Perhaps this will counter the effects of the suspicious alcohol…
Am I advocating communism? No.
Am I paraphrasing Janet Jackson’s 1992 hit ‘The Best Things in Life are Free’? Possibly.
yay for a great depression!!!!
You make a good point.
I’m not sure how your theory works now tho, we are a consumerist peoples now, we need fast fixes and plenty of them. Will we be able to handle the introspective nature of your mentioned socialising?
the speed within which we’ve changed into a consumerist people from whatever it was we were supposed to be beforehand makes me think that if we can’t at first, we’ll soon learn
“whatever it was we were supposed to be”
I think we’ve always been consumerist… but we’ve only recently had things to buy…
Possibly not, but you have to hope, right?
I’m always suprised by how quickly we can adapt to new situations. I’m also usually suprised by how quickly we change from stable to rioting.
It’s the 21st century, Adam. There are no communists anymore. We’re all libertarians now.
I’m hoping that Asia is skipped by the financial crisis fairy. I was here for the last financial crisis, and it was not fun, believe you me. I should probably be concerned that Eunsuk and I have a fair chunk of money tied up in AIG. Oh well. As long as we have food to eat and a roof over our heads it won’t be too bad.
Fortunately, we can all still get our daily supply of instant gratification from free online comics and open source computer games.
Comrade Joseph, you are indeed correct, ‘Libertarian’.
As far as my (limited) understanding goes, this is mostly a western crunch. A little too much greed in the mortgage market. There are even a couple of eastern European countries that stand to do well from this.
I only just remember the last crisis… I had no money to worrry about back then.
I think it’s important to remember that someone, somewhere is actually making money out of this situation.
Free comics, free games… who needs food? That’s not a flippant or rhetorical question, by the way, I can’t think of anything else I need.
Isn’t it funny how libertarianism and communism rely on the same underlying assumption about human nature? Neither theory holds water if you don’t assume that people are innately likely to work for the greater good of the social organism, voluntarily and at potential personal sacrifice.
It also relies on the assumption that those who don’t voluntarily work for everyone will be ostracized by the (hopeful) majority that do, thereby making them want to work for every else as well. (Although my understanding is the in libertarianism “working for others” means “not actively hurting others”).
I’m just wondering if my suddenly lowered credit limit is actually a problem or not…. I’ve been paying real money for things instead of fake money…. hmm….