Thanks for the replies.
The normal thing in England seems to be to get the highest paid job possible, even if it means travelling a very long way to work, then buying the most expensive house possible on your salary, at which point you are enslaved to your boss and cannot speak out or defend youself for fear of losing your job.
I believe people should get a job nearer home and allow themselves more time to spend doing the things they really like to do (I don't mean getting drunk). And try to get a home that is within their means, so there is some spare capacity and they can tell their boss to shove it if they are out of order.
I do realise that many people are just trying to survive. But I find it crazy when I see fairly well off people voluntarily enslaving themselves and working stupidly long hours, while other people can't even get a job.
Yeah it's a tough one. I really care about the environment and feel it is a great tragedy to cut down every forest and eliminate the amazing animals and plants that live there. So terrible but this is the result of growth.
I really hate economic growth and believe we need 'stability' rather than growth. Growth is based on the idea that everyone's income needs to increase every year for them to be happy. But my income has decreased every year for the last decade and I've found out that is fine, because my happiness is not based on buying things. I do realise that I have been lucky and things would be a big problem if income decreased to the point where I could not pay the bills.
I'm sure that if we globally aimed for stability instead of growth, then we wouldn't deplete resources and increase pollution at an ever increasing rate. We also need to make sure everyone can control their own family sizes because our population is still rapidly increasing, which is crazy on an overpopulated planet.
I'm not entirely sure where I stand in the sense of socialism and so on but I think there is a serious problem with rampant capitalism where people are encouraged to be selfish and keep buying products to fuel the ever increasing economy. There must be regulation, but we need real freedom too, so there can be innovation and the ability to set up interesting businesses, like Live for Speed.
The normal thing in England seems to be to get the highest paid job possible, even if it means travelling a very long way to work, then buying the most expensive house possible on your salary, at which point you are enslaved to your boss and cannot speak out or defend youself for fear of losing your job.
I believe people should get a job nearer home and allow themselves more time to spend doing the things they really like to do (I don't mean getting drunk). And try to get a home that is within their means, so there is some spare capacity and they can tell their boss to shove it if they are out of order.
I do realise that many people are just trying to survive. But I find it crazy when I see fairly well off people voluntarily enslaving themselves and working stupidly long hours, while other people can't even get a job.
Yeah it's a tough one. I really care about the environment and feel it is a great tragedy to cut down every forest and eliminate the amazing animals and plants that live there. So terrible but this is the result of growth.
I really hate economic growth and believe we need 'stability' rather than growth. Growth is based on the idea that everyone's income needs to increase every year for them to be happy. But my income has decreased every year for the last decade and I've found out that is fine, because my happiness is not based on buying things. I do realise that I have been lucky and things would be a big problem if income decreased to the point where I could not pay the bills.
I'm sure that if we globally aimed for stability instead of growth, then we wouldn't deplete resources and increase pollution at an ever increasing rate. We also need to make sure everyone can control their own family sizes because our population is still rapidly increasing, which is crazy on an overpopulated planet.
I'm not entirely sure where I stand in the sense of socialism and so on but I think there is a serious problem with rampant capitalism where people are encouraged to be selfish and keep buying products to fuel the ever increasing economy. There must be regulation, but we need real freedom too, so there can be innovation and the ability to set up interesting businesses, like Live for Speed.
