Damned, this is depressing...

[Pilgrim]

If you socialists will leave us capitalists enough money to make the trip, we'll go, and gladly, just for the peace of mind. But we're taking our money with us.

...and we'll take our creative drive (the want to create things so that the world's a better place and in the process make a buck) with us as well!!

Unfortunately, you'll need to take The Creative Class with you too to create those things which the capitalists can market . . . and my guess would be . . . .

 

Ahhh, yes. The ones who've given us rap music, modern movies and TV, video games, Oprah books, and Piss Christ.

 

I can stand the loss.

 

Pilgrim

 

[Pilgrim]

The guys showing up for jobs as Firefighters have almost no practical, real-world skills anymore. They can't troubleshoot, don't even change their own oil and barely know which end of a hammer to pick up.

Could it be . . . ?

 

Truth follows.

 

My wife and always told our daughters, when they were dating, that one of the first things they should find out about a guy is whether or not he carries a pocket knife. If he doesn't, send him on down the road. They understood that there are other, more complex criteria, of course, but at a basic level he's not prepared to meet the simplest of challenges.

 

A knife with a long, skinny blade and a button on the side to open it is a disqualifier, though.

 

Pilgrim

[Pilgrim]

We have all been damaged by it too, of course, and that's what some of us are looking for now - a better balance, while others of us are resisting that.

 

Dave, I think that is hitting the proverbial nail on the head..... and a better balance does most certainly not equate to the much dreaded 'socialism'.

Behaving more 'social' on the other hand might have a major positive influence on our current-day society that seems to have drifted off into a very egocentric mode in many places and areas.

 

Francois, while you might not gather it from some of my posts (esp. responding to Ken), I agree. Mankind, as a general thing, works best in groups.

 

But the society that demands all men work in groups, and be rewarded equally without regard to successful effort, is going to stifle the best of the initiative that leads society forward.

 

Pilgrim

[Francois_Dumas]

Meanwhile, despite of the original title of this thread and some doom and gloom spread throughout it, Holiday Shopping (which is for December 5 in this country) is UP compared to last year and the general mood of the consumers is still 'we're not going to let us get down by what all the media are telling us yet, and we're going to have a nice Sinterklaas. We'll worry maybe after the holidays'.