Have We Gotten Lazy as a Society?

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us3rnotfound

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2003
5,334
3
81
I think it's inevitable. As a country finds success and becomes as big as America, generations aren't going to want to work as hard as previous generations.


“A nation is born stocic, and dies epicurean."
`Will Durant

Ok what about Great Britain, from which the founding fathers of America wanted to sever ties? That country is still going pretty strong all Brexit jokes aside. Did they get lazier too? What have they been doing? I doubt that they’ve been too lazy, although I’m aware they do have many 40+ yr olds that live at home with mom and dad still.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,402
8,038
136
Ok what about Great Britain, from which the founding fathers of America wanted to sever ties? That country is still going pretty strong all Brexit jokes aside. Did they get lazier too? What have they been doing? I doubt that they’ve been too lazy, although I’m aware they do have many 40+ yr olds that live at home with mom and dad still.
Some of this may have to do with latitude. When your winters are pretty cold laziness doesn't cut it.

The UK have a history of tradition. Some revolutionary stuff went on, but they retained a core. America, well, it's the melting pot. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, nice sounding stuff with some substance at least theoretically, but they are not enough to make the 50 states truly "united." In fact, the USA is fractured and the fissures are growing, not healing. There are major potentially insoluble problems on the horizon and America is not showing the mettle necessary to resolve them. Look at the federal government's stance on climate change, on environmental problems. Trump is worse than in denial. He refuses to behold reality. If we don't do a lot better in choosing our "leaders," we are in for a very rough future.
 

skull

Platinum Member
Jun 5, 2000
2,209
327
126
No excuse? Your kidding , right?? I know plenty of people who are married and man and wife are both working and have children and cannot afford basic medical care...…….
You must be one of those Trump Republicans...

What do they waste their money on? I know plenty of poor people and they always blow their money on something. Expensive clothes/shoes, brand new cars, eating out, weed/beer, chips, pop and a pack of cigs from the gas station multiple times a day. If they got cheap cars they blow money on speakers and rims for it. The list goes on and on.

Then there is those of us that scrimped every dollar buying clothes from goodwill, driving the beaters we learned how to fix ourselves, with cheap parts from the pick it yourself yard. Going with out big screen tvs, playstations, iphones, staying home instead of going out to the movies. I took it one step farther and spent every extra dollar at pawn shops, on craigslist saving every where I could buying tools to build a business and get myself out of poverty. I'm with dude no excuses get off your ass and do something about your situation.

Also fuck trump.
 
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snoopy7548

Diamond Member
Jan 1, 2005
8,048
5,043
146
No excuse? Your kidding , right?? I know plenty of people who are married and man and wife are both working and have children and cannot afford basic medical care...…….
You must be one of those Trump Republicans...

Nope, I'm a staunch democrat. I absolutely hate Trump, the current GOP, and everything they stand for.

How long have these friends been working? Saving $7.70/week for a whole year may be difficult, so spread it out over two years - $3.85/week.

If you can't save or make an extra $1/day, something is wrong. That drops to 50 cents/day over two years. You can probably walk around a city and find more than that in loose change on the ground.

But I guess it depends on where you live and work. Most companies provide health insurance if you're a full-time worker (per the ACA), so it sounds like your friends may both be working part-time. If they're living in San Francisco, working at Starbucks, have student loans, and sending both children to daycare then yeah... they're gonna have issues. But you can work at Starbucks in a lower COL state.

I have a co-worker who is living paycheck to paycheck, but he's leasing a $30k car, has an expensive smartphone plan, and probably spends up to $100/week on vitamins and protein bars. Meanwhile, I'm still driving an 11 year old car in great shape, pay ~$10/month for a Tracfone plan, and average $60-70/week on groceries that consist of all fresh vegetables/fruits and I cook every single one of my meals.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,402
8,038
136
What do they waste their money on? I know plenty of poor people and they always blow their money on something. Expensive clothes/shoes, brand new cars, eating out, weed/beer, chips, pop and a pack of cigs from the gas station multiple times a day. If they got cheap cars they blow money on speakers and rims for it. The list goes on and on.

Then there is those of us that scrimped every dollar buying clothes from goodwill, driving the beaters we learned how to fix ourselves, with cheap parts from the pick it yourself yard. Going with out big screen tvs, playstations, iphones, staying home instead of going out to the movies. I took it one step farther and spent every extra dollar at pawn shops, on craigslist saving every where I could buying tools to build a business and get myself out of poverty. I'm with dude no excuses get off your ass and do something about your situation.

Also fuck trump.
You, I can relate to. I've done most all those things (that you have done, not those pseudo-poor people you reference)... well, everything except building a business, however I built a career after age 50 in database programming. Took a city college class, but I was mostly self-taught from books. It lasted a while and was a gas compared to drifting from one dead end get-nowhere job to another, no benefits, last as long as possible until shown the door... happened far too many times for me to remember. It was such that the concept of disposable income was totally anathema to the lifestyle that the world had imposed upon me. I know how to scrimp. I'd bicycle 50 miles round trip to a clearance warehouse. In fact I am right now wearing a pair of pants I bought at that place after one such ride over 30 years ago. Yeah, black pants, and I dyed them black again (2nd time) before this Thanksgiving so I wouldn't look like a pauper in front of my well-to-do family. I was the only person I've ever seen riding a bicycle to Costco. I'd bolt a giant basket of my own construction to the bike. One day I brought home over 100 lb. of stuff from Costco on my bike. That was a little tough. 80 lb. I used to manage regularly. These days I do have a car.
 
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Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,402
8,038
136
average $60-70/week on groceries that consist of all fresh vegetables/fruits and I cook every single one of my meals.
I kept track of my food expenses, every cent for almost 3 years beginning 10 years ago. I averaged under $4/day. I still have the data. I'm spending more now mostly because my fruits and veges are mostly organic. I have more money now, but I'm still pretty frugal and grow some of my own produce. In fact I have about 125 lb. of kabocha squash stored in the house right now... "winter" squash, they call it. I make a stew that's out of this world, have 2.7 quarts of it in the fridge right now.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,363
7,514
126
I kept track of my food expenses, every cent for almost 3 years beginning 10 years ago. I averaged under $4/day. I still have the data. I'm spending more now mostly because my fruits and veges are mostly organic. I have more money now, but I'm still pretty frugal and grow some of my own produce. In fact I have about 125 lb. of kabocha squash stored in the house right now... "winter" squash, they call it. I make a stew that's out of this world, have 2.7 quarts of it in the fridge right now.
Food items is one thing I blow money on. My policy is if it's in my hand, and I'm interested, I buy it regardless of cost. I don't have to watch every penny now, and food isn't the worst place you can spend money. Gotta spend it somewhere.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,402
8,038
136
Food items is one thing I blow money on. My policy is if it's in my hand, and I'm interested, I buy it regardless of cost. I don't have to watch every penny now, and food isn't the worst place you can spend money. Gotta spend it somewhere.
Even if you are dirt poor it's good to have something, anything, your choice, that's an indulgence. It'd have gone crazy if I didn't. I used to save up for special items. I'm looking right now at the JVC Super-VHS tape deck I bought in 1989 when it was the only one available anywhere on planet earth (JVC developed the technology). It cost me $1000 and I brought it home on my bicycle. It doesn't work anymore. It's one function is to tell me the time! :)
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
21,004
19,441
136
I'm gonna get McD's delivered here tonight. Watch a movie with the fiancee. Eat salty fries goodness. Nothing wrong with that.
 
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skull

Platinum Member
Jun 5, 2000
2,209
327
126
No excuse? Your kidding , right?? I know plenty of people who are married and man and wife are both working and have children and cannot afford basic medical care...…….
You must be one of those Trump Republicans...

Since you just negged me and didn't respond, let me guess they had kids before they could provide for them? I manage to leave out the biggest drain on the poor. Its been the biggest downfall for a lot of my friends, having kids in their 20s. Along with just not having budgets. They just spend and pay bills til the paychecks gone then wonder where all the money went and what they're going to do.
 

Staples

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2001
4,952
119
106
When they have experiments like deporting everyone from a state and seeing that they are not even able to fill 10% of positions food prep/farming/construction with American born citizens, then yes, you know we have gotten lazy.

And people are stupid with money. Most probably could afford $400 if they saved anything but they don't. Have any extra money near payday? Well lets go out to eat and waste it. You do know that the amount of money spent in restaurants has been trending upwards forever.
 
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TecHNooB

Diamond Member
Sep 10, 2005
7,460
1
76
80 hour a week millennial reporting in :D If I'm not working I'm studying or hobbying :)
 

JEDIYoda

Lifer
Jul 13, 2005
33,981
3,318
126
Nope, I'm a staunch democrat. I absolutely hate Trump, the current GOP, and everything they stand for.

How long have these friends been working? Saving $7.70/week for a whole year may be difficult, so spread it out over two years - $3.85/week.

If you can't save or make an extra $1/day, something is wrong. That drops to 50 cents/day over two years. You can probably walk around a city and find more than that in loose change on the ground.

But I guess it depends on where you live and work. Most companies provide health insurance if you're a full-time worker (per the ACA), so it sounds like your friends may both be working part-time. If they're living in San Francisco, working at Starbucks, have student loans, and sending both children to daycare then yeah... they're gonna have issues. But you can work at Starbucks in a lower COL state.

I have a co-worker who is living paycheck to paycheck, but he's leasing a $30k car, has an expensive smartphone plan, and probably spends up to $100/week on vitamins and protein bars. Meanwhile, I'm still driving an 11 year old car in great shape, pay ~$10/month for a Tracfone plan, and average $60-70/week on groceries that consist of all fresh vegetables/fruits and I cook every single one of my meals.

My reaction is that you cannot sterotype all people. Sounds like your co worker is also irresponsible....