http://scottbush.net/life/opting-out-of-commercial-christmas/ Notes on web development (and a few other topics) Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:56:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 http://scottbush.net/life/opting-out-of-commercial-christmas/#comment-566 Scott Bush » Best.Present.Ever Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:39:41 +0000 http://scottbush.net/v2/blog/2007/12/15/opting-out-of-commercial-christmas/#comment-566 [...] you may have read elsewhere on teh Intarwebs, we focused on homemade gifts this year. I’m pleased to report that our [...] [...] you may have read elsewhere on teh Intarwebs, we focused on homemade gifts this year. I’m pleased to report that our [...]

]]> http://scottbush.net/life/opting-out-of-commercial-christmas/#comment-565 tannerellen Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:23:07 +0000 http://scottbush.net/v2/blog/2007/12/15/opting-out-of-commercial-christmas/#comment-565 Yeah, I was just giving you a hard time. I wish I had the willpower to do what you guys did for christmas. It is really hard though when everyone else is out buying gifts and asking you what you want. It always makes me want to buy gifts and it gets me thinking about what I might want to buy for myself ; ) I think that we can only be one extreme or the other. Either our whole society needs to get rid of all possessions or we need to keep getting constantly more materialistic to support our growing population. I don't think we could support a non-material society unless we had a huge collapse in population. Maybe if 3/4 of our population died then we would have the land and resources to support what was left. We would also have to stop living in cities and go back to living in smaller groups. Something to look forward to I guess. The closest thing we will probably see in our lifetime is Communism, unfortunately. Yeah, I was just giving you a hard time. I wish I had the willpower to do what you guys did for christmas. It is really hard though when everyone else is out buying gifts and asking you what you want. It always makes me want to buy gifts and it gets me thinking about what I might want to buy for myself ; ) I think that we can only be one extreme or the other. Either our whole society needs to get rid of all possessions or we need to keep getting constantly more materialistic to support our growing population. I don’t think we could support a non-material society unless we had a huge collapse in population. Maybe if 3/4 of our population died then we would have the land and resources to support what was left. We would also have to stop living in cities and go back to living in smaller groups. Something to look forward to I guess. The closest thing we will probably see in our lifetime is Communism, unfortunately.

]]> http://scottbush.net/life/opting-out-of-commercial-christmas/#comment-564 scott.bush Sun, 23 Dec 2007 19:32:07 +0000 http://scottbush.net/v2/blog/2007/12/15/opting-out-of-commercial-christmas/#comment-564 I know you're joking (at least, I hope you are or you'll kick my butt with some of that mixed-martial arts you're so good at--my aikido won't be able to defeat you! ;-) but I have thought about that. Sure, it's fine if we opt out. It'd even be fine if a few hundred families did. Beyond that and yes, our capitalistic system may suffer to the point where real problems happen. But maybe that's what we need? The industrial revolution spurred change. It wasn't easy, but it advanced us. Later, more and more automation cost jobs--but those jobs were replaced with a more knowledge-based workforce. Some would argue that the outsourcing of even knowledge-based jobs to global work centers like Bangalore is just another stage of our economic evolution. Similarly, maybe moving away from a consumerism-driven model is part of our advancement as a society? Or perhaps it would just bring chaos the likes of which haven't been seen since the scarcity of Tickle-Me Elmo dolls in 2003? I know you’re joking (at least, I hope you are or you’ll kick my butt with some of that mixed-martial arts you’re so good at–my aikido won’t be able to defeat you! ;-) but I have thought about that. Sure, it’s fine if we opt out. It’d even be fine if a few hundred families did. Beyond that and yes, our capitalistic system may suffer to the point where real problems happen. But maybe that’s what we need?
The industrial revolution spurred change. It wasn’t easy, but it advanced us. Later, more and more automation cost jobs–but those jobs were replaced with a more knowledge-based workforce. Some would argue that the outsourcing of even knowledge-based jobs to global work centers like Bangalore is just another stage of our economic evolution. Similarly, maybe moving away from a consumerism-driven model is part of our advancement as a society?
Or perhaps it would just bring chaos the likes of which haven’t been seen since the scarcity of Tickle-Me Elmo dolls in 2003?

]]> http://scottbush.net/life/opting-out-of-commercial-christmas/#comment-563 tannerellen Sun, 23 Dec 2007 04:45:50 +0000 http://scottbush.net/v2/blog/2007/12/15/opting-out-of-commercial-christmas/#comment-563 Unfortunately we live in a society where you need to buy lots of things for everyone to prosper. Our system is very capitalist and benefits greatly from consumerism. So basically, when our next recession hits, I am blaming you! It's all your fault for not buying a ton of crap for christmas. Thanks for killing our economy! Unfortunately we live in a society where you need to buy lots of things for everyone to prosper. Our system is very capitalist and benefits greatly from consumerism. So basically, when our next recession hits, I am blaming you! It’s all your fault for not buying a ton of crap for christmas. Thanks for killing our economy!

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