If you can equate luck, and happiness, with material excess, with having a lot of stuff, then we are lucky. And yes, there is a lot to be said for the 'independence' in getting one's own car, own phone etc.
While all these gadgets to some extent have enhanced our quality of life, they've also detracted from it. An example is car accidents. In the USA upwards of 40 000 die in car accidents each year, in South Africa 12 000 die on roads. The world figure is over 1 million.
The other cost to our car culture is pollution, environm,ental degradation and climate change. In a sense, Peak Oil and depletion is exactly what the world needs because people were never going to wean themselves off this addiction. So we can embrace the inevitable as - healthy.
What we need to try to do is enjoy our material abundance (not the excess/indulgence aspect] while balancing that with a sense of conscientiousness. Are our activities, multiplied on a collective scale, good for the planet? In many cases the answer is 'No'. Yes, we may miss some of the current way of life, but if we're realistic, a lot of it made for a lonely, empty and destructive existence. While the future may be more difficult, it will probably enhance our lives...that is...change our lives for the better.
While all these gadgets to some extent have enhanced our quality of life, they've also detracted from it. An example is car accidents. In the USA upwards of 40 000 die in car accidents each year, in South Africa 12 000 die on roads. The world figure is over 1 million.
The other cost to our car culture is pollution, environm,ental degradation and climate change. In a sense, Peak Oil and depletion is exactly what the world needs because people were never going to wean themselves off this addiction. So we can embrace the inevitable as - healthy.
What we need to try to do is enjoy our material abundance (not the excess/indulgence aspect] while balancing that with a sense of conscientiousness. Are our activities, multiplied on a collective scale, good for the planet? In many cases the answer is 'No'. Yes, we may miss some of the current way of life, but if we're realistic, a lot of it made for a lonely, empty and destructive existence. While the future may be more difficult, it will probably enhance our lives...that is...change our lives for the better.
In 1949, the minimum wage was $0.40 per hour, and a full-time summer job (40 hours per week for 12 weeks) would have generated $192 in total summer earnings (ignoring taxes). Using a Sears catalog for retail prices, $192 would have only purchased the following 4 items in 1949 (click charts to enlarge): Now contrast that with 2009. At the 2009 minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, a full-time summer job will generate about $3,500 this year, which would be enough to purchase the following list of 28 items (click to enlarge): Add it all up. When it comes to their economic prospects, today’s young Americans are the Luckiest Generation in history—at least until their children grow up and forge an even luckier one. And even if real wages are flat, the explosion of new products over time at lower and lower prices translates into a rising standard of living for all income groups, even minimum wage workers.
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