Comments on: You’re Rich and Don’t Know It

By: achampag

achampag — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:31:50 +0000

"Formal discrimination against women and minorities has ended. There is mass home ownership, with central heat and air-conditioning - and endless labor-saving devices: stoves, ovens, refrigerators, dishwashers, microwaves, cell phones and computers."

no offense, but here you write like the typical white man who doesnt understand how the other half lives. and youre incorrect; we *had* almost a 70% occupancy rate in homes, now rental occupancy is soaring.

my apt has no dishwasher. havent had one for over ten years now, even when i was married in the service. and its going to take me 3 months to get to see a doctor because i have no insurance. i cannot afford the insurance at my decent office job. i dont have my air on because i am scrimping. as for the discrimination comment...ok yeah, its not *formal* lol thats like saying that france only had *public* executions until 1939. real progress there.

quality of life? this includes my mental happiness sir, and unlike you i cannot remove the images from my mind of those who suffer horrendously due to sheer greed around this world.

how ppl lived a hundred years ago and how they lived two hundred, three hundred years ago may also be very different things. and yet you dont discuss how simple their burdens were then; all this instantaneous information comes at the cost of nerves and wear, or havent you noticed?

i enjoyed this piece though, as you provide an interesting glance back. i do agree we have come a long way, but its way too early to be popping champagne and arrogantly boasting about how good we have it.

hey can i trade you my google page rank of 5 so i can see a doctor next week? didnt think so.

By: Ned S

Ned S — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:19:42 +0000

Yeh, I lost a lot of interest in hearing how tough things were for people in the developed countries when I read one commentator describe a sacrifice the family had made to get by in the GFC - They'd chosen to not buy a new dishwasher on credit when their old one failed - And were washing their dishes by hand. If it had been the washing machine that had failed and they were washing their clothes by hand I would have been a bit more impressed. Of course, for Westerners, the local laundromat could also help struggle though such an epic crisis of life changing significance?

By: Jon Bain

Jon Bain — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:24:33 +0000

The other side of the coin, is that because life is so easy for so many, and this has come about as a result of cultural complexity, so many people do not see the roots that are nourishing them.

The roots I am talking of, are ethics. If you have ever visited a youth forum, you will realise how few people really understand or appreciate how our society is held together by ethics.

As these strands are becoming more and more unravelled, there is a growing concern that out great human society resembles a Titanic, or a Hindenberg.

By: WhatThe...?

WhatThe...? — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:11:09 +0000

Seems like a lot of those lucky first-generation portable phone users who rode around in their limos on the phone constantly are developing brain cancers. Probably not enough Vitamin THC. If you want to get a little spiritual, it's fine with me, friend; my post-modernism is weak enough to take it. But, pullleeeeze! spare me the Richard Dawkins!!!!! The man is a fool who wouldn't know the truth if it turned into a monkey and flew up his butt.

By: Debbie Alexander

Debbie Alexander — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:41:50 +0000

Alexander, Thank you for this great article. My father grew up during the Depression and knew what it was like togo to bed hungry, sleep on dirt floors in a cabin during a bad winter, and walk to school with no shoes on his feet. At the age of thirteen, he joined the CCC Camps and went on to serve in two wars. He always talked proudly about the progress this country made. I know he would have liked your article very much.

By: john wade

john wade — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:45:19 +0000

Alexander,

with increasing energy costs rolling into the future, less 'work' will be done, less goods produced and less miles travelled. The backbreaking subsistence living may well be back on the agenda. If O'kelly had known what many vitamin d researchers know, he may well have had many more years to meet with his friends and family.