What Will It Take for Us to Get Back to Being a Decent Society?
POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Saturday, April 25, 2026 00:05
VIEWED: 18057
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To riff on what KIKI said
Quote:A couple of important points: More profit means the ability to expand a business. With that kind of system driver in a positive feedback (more begets more) configuration, ultimately the greediest businesses are the one which will take over. When greed is consistently rewarded, people will become greedy. And, has been pointed out, wealth begets assholeness. So as long as our economic system rewards greed.... and, no, I don't mean a "pat on the head" kind of reward, I mean real rewards like the chance to survive and the capacity to expand... our society will be greedy.
When the economy crashed and people lost jobs and got desperate, business people became what they always wanted to be - greedy without restraint. People got desperate for jobs, and business owners took advantage without any consideration.
So no, I don't expect this society to go 'back' to being decent. For one thing, it never was. In the US we floated on the post WWII destruction other countries were struggling with to give us our first-place economy. And besides, this is a capitalist economy. Profit is the only goal. That won't change.
In addition, we may have been decent in the 40s and 50s and 60s... and 70s and 80s and 90s and more .... HERE... but overseas we were brutalizing reformist governments all through Central and South America and the Middle East, and rewarding capitalist tyrannies everywhere. Our early "interventions" have caused ontold suffering, death, and instability... including the development of a hardline Muslim revolution in Iran and the creation of a tyrannical monarchy in Saudi Arabia. And don't forget our own racist heritage, which was widely accepted "back then".
And now we have the new generation, raised to be real consumers in a virtual world. They have no idea about anywhere, anyone, or anywhen else, and are completely oblivious to the environmental and social destruction that their demand for toys is causing.
So, what will it take for us to "get back to" being a decent society (if we ever were one)?
Get rid of money. As long as money can be traded and hoarded, it will continue to allow people to be able to buy power over others and over society.
Eliminate TPTB. Choose workplace democracy and social engagement over individualistic libertariansim.
Throw out smart phones, iphones, and the other highly mobile devices that allow people to be plugged into a virtual world virtually 24/7. Don't allow kids unlimited access to videogames and television and the internet. Childrens' developing brains are vulnerable to addiction. If you want a healthy society, make them go out and play... or go out and work... or just go out and daydream. But keep them engaged in the real world and in real people.
Stop buying a lot of crap. Opt for "just enough". Value education.
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Quote:
1776 Continental Dollar: The first coin authorized by the Continental Congress after the signing of the Declaration of Independance was the 1776 Continental Currency, called the Continental Dollar. Designed by Benjamin Franklin, America’s first coin was a one of beautiful simplicity. There was a sort of monetary anarchy in the United States so the Congress decided that issuing the Continental Dollar would help unite the nation by bringing some kind of standardization to the monetary system. The first coins of the United States showed a sundial with the legend "Fugio", meaning "I fly." The sundial refers to time, so the message was that "Time flies." Under the sundial is the motto, "Mind your business." On the reverse of these cents is a chain with 13 links. The legend on the reverse says, "We are one." All of these mottos are attributed to Benjamin Franklin and collectors call these "Fugio cents" or "Franklin cents." .
MIND YOUR BUSINESS - While some may view this as a message for others to butt out of YOUR business, it's also a reminder to keep your OWN affairs in order. To yourself, you should MIND YOUR BUSINESS.
I think if more folks would take the attitude of looking after their OWN affairs, instead of trying to blame othes for what they don't have, or looking to the govt to give them things they feel they are OWED, then society will be vastly improved.
Yes. There are those with needs out in the world. No one denies that fact. But when the idea of seeing others being taken care of gets a hold, some start thinking " Why should I bother working so hard, when I can get stuff for free ? ". It's THAT 'Let someone else do it ' mentality that's become a cancer to the American public.
You didn't build that! - Implies that all the effort you put forth wasn't of YOUR doing, but in reality, was a product of " The Collective ". With that sort of outlook on life, the West would have never been explored or tamed. The frontier may have never exceeded past the Mississippi valley. America would not be America were it not for far sighted, free thinking INDIVIDUALS.
Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen
I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.
" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall
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And here we have an example of our very own wealth-begotten asshole.
Rappy, if the wealthy really did MIND THEIR BUSINESS, and ONLY their business, we would be far better off than we are now. But, as it is, the wealthy not only want what they can earn on their own and keep by dint of personal effort, they want the banks, the military, the police, the copyright office, the law... indeed, the entire government of the USA... to mind their business for them.
I wish to god you were on your own, with nothing but your "individual" "hard work" to survive on. You wouldn't last a month. In fact, you'd be one of the first to go.
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Quote:
I wish to god you were on your own, with nothing but your "individual" "hard work" to survive on. You wouldn't last a month. In fact, you'd be one of the first to go
Schadenfreude much?
There you go, NOT minding your own business, and instead trying to interject yourself into the business of others.
You don't know me. You don't know what I do, and you have absolutely no clue of what you speak. Again.
You really are among the worst that lurks on the internet, Sig.
Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen
I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.
" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall
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Quote:Says the man who is telling everyone else they have to play by HIS rules? Hey, all I did was wish for you to be living YOUR OWN personal fantasy of how you think the world should work... yanno, everyone living off their own individual effort and hard work... and it seems you didn't like it much in there. So please, dear god, make it so that rappy has to live by the fruits of his own labor!
There you go, NOT minding your own business, and instead trying to interject yourself into the business of others.
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Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
With that sort of outlook on life, the West would have never been explored or tamed. The frontier may have never exceeded past the Mississippi valley. America would not be America were it not for far sighted, free thinking INDIVIDUALS.
This is a pretty bad example for Mind Your Own Business. Those jolly explorers and "tamers" were invaders who happily butted into the business of the people already living in those areas, acting as if they were owed the land these people lived on.
If that's not a sense of entitlement to forcibly taking what belongs to others because you feel you are owed that...
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Quote:That is no way to run a country. I've seen this kind of Henry David Thoreau advice before. Do a search at Amazon for all the books titled "How Much is Enough?" It is great for people with money volunteering to live poor; it improves their souls and clarifies their minds. But it doesn't help real poor people. They need incomes and jobs. Or put more crudely: Money. One way to make that happen was having World War II. There are now other ways, less destructive, to reverse economic recessions.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
. . . Get rid of money. . . . Stop buying a lot of crap. Opt for "just enough". . . .
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Quote:Aided, in no small part, by the US Cavalry. So, yeah... not much "minding your own business" going on there.
This is a pretty bad example for Mind Your Own Business. Those jolly explorers and "tamers" were invaders who happily butted into the business of the people already living in those areas, acting as if they were owed the land these people lived on.
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Quote:No, they don't need money.
That is no way to run a country. I've seen this kind of Henry David Thoreau advice before. Do a search at Amazon for all the books titled "How Much is Enough?" It is great for people with money volunteering to live poor; it improves their souls and clarifies their minds. But it doesn't help real poor people. They need incomes and jobs. Or put more crudely: Money. One way to make that happen was having World War II. There are now other ways, less destructive.
The world is awash with money. And yet, while people need to be educated and healed, and homes need to be built, and land needs to be farmed and environments need to be remediated and population growth needs to be tamed... why is there unemployment?
What people NEED is some technology to make their lives more productive and less brutally hard. They need food. They need houses. They need education. They need a source of power. Money isn't necessary to obtain those things. You really only need work, and maybe some helpful tools.
That is the difference between exchange value (money) and use value (goods).
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Says the man who is telling everyone else they have to play by HIS rules?
There you go, NOT minding your own business, and instead trying to interject yourself into the business of others.
Only, I never have. I'm not the one demanding that everyone give the federal govt more and more, out of some misguided claim of " fairness ".
Quote:
Hey, all I did was wish for you to be living YOUR OWN personal fantasy of how you think the world should work... yanno, everyone living off their own individual effort and hard work... and it seems you didn't like it much in there. So please, dear god, make it so that rappy has to live by the fruits of his own labor!
I'd still be there if Obama and company didn't keep taking from me.
When the govt comes and takes the fruits of everyone, and tells us " it's for the greater good ", I don't trust the govt. Especially not those in power today.
Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen
I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.
" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall
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