I love getting to think vicariously through Jill while she goes to school ....
All of the basic knowledge that I missed or tried to obtain when I could concentrate better by reading I realized I had remembered some things. I am not sure what makes some reading stay in my long term memory and not others....
this was about Epicurus
Do we need an “ethics of buying”? Is over shopping (consumerism) an ethical problem that legislators need to address?
Do you think Epicurus’ philosophy is a philosophy that can help people in the 21st century especially because of the current state of the U.S. economy?
Today we live in a society that is suffering the consequences of excessive spending, a symptom of this most recently is evident in the foreclosure disaster and mortgage backed securities that were sold. The twofold repsonsibility lay with the purchaser who spent beyond their means and the broker who sold a bad debt which was resold creating financial ruin for not only this country but the world economy. Because the government is providing program to insurance companies, the auto industry, and now citizens, the ethics of
overspending may become a legislative topic of interest. If the government was not laying a foundation to restore economic security then I think that it is not an area for the government to regulate. If the government is now having stipulations to these bailouts at the corporate level, then it is possible to see a future where the government can monitor an individuals spending habits. The capping of executive salaries at 500 thousand is an example of one such limit to receiving federal aid. How would a person be subject to scrutiny in their spending? It is too late as the economy may take years to recover and we may never see credit again that was abused by the low to middle income shopper. If people who intentionally over spent thought that material excess would bring them happiness then they are now having some buyer's remorse. As well as significant problems making ends meet. The hair dresser in the video said he shopped with his free time. what an ironic choice of words. He also said in the second video that if the people in his life were happy then he was. If you surround yourself with friends who also are impulsed to spend money on additional things they already have, like watches, jeans, clothes that they will not wear, then you are unlikely to examine why or if this activity will have repercussions.
The excessive spender cannot blame advertising and the influence of their peers. The person may justify the behavior by saying they are intuitive and if it feels right then I do it. And therefore you may not criticize this pure form of impulse action as the intention is to be happy. This is not reasoning to me as there is not thought forward to any consequences as we saw when the stylist said he dreaded the credit card bill arriving in the mail.
The Epicurean ideals of community living I believe might not only benefit people today but will be the only way that people will be able to live at all. The displaced homeowners, not to mention the prior to homeless population will increase and further drain the communities of emergency help available. If banks cannot loan money to the people who are losing their businesses and homes because they loaned all of the money to people who were high risk and looked the other way then people will have to house share, apartment share, vehicle share and live off of the land if they are not in a city. Families are now cohabiting adult children and their kids, and their aunt, and or friend and continue to struggle. Epicurus believed that friends, freedom from societal pressure, and the examination of ones life are the key ingredients to happiness. I liked how he created the wall and etched the ideas because humans were forgetful. He said people needed the ideas to be reinforced constantly. I agree as today there are so many more distractions living after industrialization and the Internet, and the ability to travel which they lacked in Turkey 2000 years ago. They could not play a video game and forget that they just went over their credit limit online. Who cares to examine themselves in a culture that up until recently supported mass consumption.
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