Quantity vs. quality–some self-help re the financial collapse

by on March 4, 2009 11

A lot of my friends are now unemployed, or underemployed. I wanted to pass along some of the wisdom that they're expressing:
--We're going to learn really valuable lessons. We're going to learn about "quality" again. Quantity had replaced quality and destroyed the idea of quality.
--Quality means less travel, but the travel will be better. We'll savor the train trip. Instead of being a ghastly chore, the plane trip will become fun again, and an adventure. (We'll still find ways to get to exotic places...)
--There's nothing we can do about Washington/the big picture. Or very little we can do. Look at how little Tim Geithner can do. We can do a lot locally. This is going to strengthen local communities. Reinvigorate them.
--We're-in-the-same-boat-ism is a good thing and an antidote to the rapacious economic individualism of the last 25 years--living for the big payoff. The sense of shared-adversity is a great, genuine feeling. Some people are going to move in together. Fine. Great. No one's going to die (touch wood).
--They weren't the greatest generation because of WW2, but because of the Depression. That made them. Our turn.
--One of my friends has been unemployed since November. He had a biggish lifestyle before. "I'm never going back," he declares with passion. I said, "You're going to make money again." He said, "Yes and then I'm going to do more social investment."
--Re the Middle East, everyone knows that the U.S.'s slippage is a threat to Israel, ending the blank check policy. The end of arrogance, the beginning of engagement.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics

{ 11 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. MM says:
    March 4, 2009 at 11:45 am

    It would be great if there were a cultural transformation in the U.S., away from consumerism and speculative bubble-driven growth. Of course that won't be coming from the 40 and up crowd, most likely.

  2. doug says:
    March 4, 2009 at 12:06 pm

    "… the State of Israel and the Jewish people are facing a range of complex and severe challenges and threats, and called attention to the change of administration in the US, geopolitical uncertainty, a continuing erosion in the US's global position and the slide toward a multi-polar world, the strengthening of Iran, Israel as a pretext for the dissemination of a new anti-Semitism, the risk to Israel's image as a refuge for the Jewish people against the background of growing calls for its destruction, the economic crisis and the severe below to Jews' economic status,…"

    Israel's FM needs a proofreader.

  3. Is It Good 4 Jews? says:
    March 4, 2009 at 12:34 pm

    The usa is directly responsible for Israel's policies–how long can this go on? When comes the goy awakening?

  4. Richard Witty says:
    March 4, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    Lessons learned during unemployment:

    Assess one's expenditures
    Eat regularly with friends, cook real food – not highly packaged
    Live on one small car/family
    Rent what you don't need permanently
    Insulate and weatherstrip your home well
    USE the library, especially interlibrary loan
    Meditate and pray daily
    Walk a lot, dance while hiking
    Enjoy sex
    Respectfully read opinions and history that differs from your own
    Sing, jam
    Figure out what your life is really about, what is really important regardless of what you did in the past

  5. Rowan Berkeley says:
    March 4, 2009 at 2:24 pm

    you forgot to mention, devote much time and energy to learning to be sententious.

  6. Suzanne says:
    March 4, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    Rowan–aren't you the one stomping your self important feet all the time about personal attacks?

    What a bleeding hypocrite…sheeesh!

  7. Rowan Berkeley says:
    March 4, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    I haven't found a word that quite fits you yet, Suzanne. Despite your illiterate style and content, you have a flamboyant streak I find entertaining; it fits the stereotype one would associate with mixed Irish and Jewish parentage. Perhaps you could post a photo?

  8. Jaffr says:
    March 4, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    Jewish People Policy Planning Institute officials briefed the Cabinet on the JPPPI 2008 assessment.. .

    This at the link Phil provided in the post to the Israeli Foreign Ministry site. That is, Dennis Ross's organization sits in on Israeli cabinet meetings — and then he gets appointed as a special adviser to the US State Department.

    Which is the tail and which is the dog?

  9. Chris Berel says:
    March 4, 2009 at 10:46 pm

    You're the dog, the tail is up your ass.

    Rowan, you need an education to come up with names. I don't see the dole putting you through a quality school.

  10. Rowan says:
    March 5, 2009 at 12:46 am

    You do come up with the most amazing amount of drivel, chris. I am not on the dole; I am almost sixty years old; and I hate to think what you mean by a 'quality school'.

  11. lurker says:
    March 5, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    Chris Berel never got though grade school. That explains his comments. He's 65.

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