Now if high (or middle) schools would only explain the concept of “debt”!

I have a friend who wrote a brilliant Ph.D. thesis on the metaphysics of Aristotle, and who taught “critical thinking 101″ to the freshmen. Yet he took the “minimum payment due” amount on his credit card bill literally, and only had a good look at his bill several years (and interest rate hikes) later. And was surprised, and needed someone to explain it to him.

Then also teach “analogy” and how a concept can be applied to many different but analogous situations, and maybe youngsters will get it that they are raking up debts against the future…

It’s not so difficult. I’ve done it as a TA in logic 101 classes. Took me twenty minutes. And 50% of my freshmen sat astonished. There was always one who complained to the Professor about my rant

Internally, if we acknowledge and dwell on sympathy, there comes that nagging feeling we have to do something to correct the problem. Combine that with fear of our own future and there you have a good recipe to repress sympathy.

Maybe sympathy is easier to feel and more objective if we don’t feel we have to fix it. Kind of like tough love for kids. Let them take their lumps and learn from it.

Practically, the sooner the general public sees people crashing hard the sooner they will begin to act responsibly.

In any case, if I use my imagination to create a model of the present or future where I apply my analysis, to some extent I can be very abstract and cold. I have a feeling that when it comes down to a real live suffering person in my face, I think the sympathy will be there.

This brings me back to a thought I had a while ago in response to Sharon’s observation that we live in one of the most inequitable societies in history across the world. This made me wonder if inequality is also a mechanism for more efficient use of resources. You have to ask yourself- who uses more resources:

A- One million people with a thousand dollars each to spend

B- 999,999 people with one dollar to spend and one billionaire?

So in isolation the consumption of the middle classes of the western world looks incredibly wasteful. But when you consider the alternative of equally spreading that opportunity to consume resources around the worlds billions of poor you have to wonder if it in fact was the best possible solution at the time? The equitable alternative may have seen even more devastating environmental destruction, and the duration of the fossil fuel age may have been drastically shortened.

I think we still have a hard time getting our heads around what a monstrous bonanza the fossil fuel age was. That massive distortion of energy flowing through our societies had to go somewhere, and perhaps it was dissipated most effectively not through equality but through inequality, kind of like a flow of water cutting a deep and winding channel across a landscape.

You only have to look at the terror people instinctively feel about the chinese or indians becoming middle class en masse, and the current capacity for this swell of consumption in those societies to fuel the spawning of hundreds of millionaires and many billionaires in those countries. Before you get too down on the way things are you have to carefully think through the ways things would really otherwise be.

As for sympathising for the majority of people who are on track to suffer massively as the economy and energy system sputters and groans….for me I just take the view that they arent going to just suddenly and silently vanish away. Whatever happens we still have to live in the world they create, and we will have to deal with them day to day, so better learn how to work with them. They are a force of nature, like the weather.

I still try and tell my friends about what is happening (undeniable now), and where it is going. Despite being right on the money so far they still blink, or give a micro-expression (isnt it weird watching cognitive dissonance in real life, right in front of you?) and manage to avoid going through to the conclusion, then quickly change the subject. And to turn things back on myself, you have to ask, maybe that is the best possible way forward for them? Maybe seeing what is coming isnt necessarily an advantage for everyone. I would hazard a guess that most people couldnt psychologically cope with that burden (hell…most of us here seem to struggle with it as it is).

Shane in Australia

And re:Cassandra-it has nothing to do with my ego- if you actually knew me you’d understand that better- but everything to do with frustration over how more prepared we could all be for what is happening had others been willing to listen to all of us who have been trying to get the word out.

And yes, I acknowledge how difficult it is to figure out who is “deserving” and who isn’t- and I guess maybe I can’t fall back on the definition of porn which I believe was actually something like “I know it when I see it”- I am willing to consider many to be “deserving” and worthy of sympathy- but there are so many who I have a hard time summoning up any such feelings for- and if that makes me a lousy human being- oh well- what can I say…….

I live in an “inner city” neighborhood and I was working in the libraries and schools as a volunteer, (and supporting them financially) long before I had a child. He will reap some of those benefits, but more importantly it’s important not to abandon entire communities and their infrastructure even if you are not part of the community that’s being abandoned.

Specifically for environmentalists, the very best way to combat suburban sprawl and all the wastefulness involved in it, is to support and invest in our urban neighborhoods, and to protect and invest in the small local schools in rural towns instead of allowing them to be swallowed up into busing-nightmare consolidated schools.

My parents both grew up poor — in part because of the Depression, and in part because, in my mother’s case, her father died when she was young and an uncle took over the finances (happens more easily than one might think, and especially in Chinese families in the 1920s and 30s). In my father’s case his parents were both dead by the time he was 16 or so — he joined the army as soon as he could not as a matter of duty (WWII) but also it was the easiest, surest way to support his younger sister. Both worked hard, got through college, my mother ending up with two Masters and my father a Master and a PhD. But all the education didn’t necessarily teach how to manage money to pay bills and plan for the future. My mom’s great at it still, but my dad never really quite got it (which is why she eventually took over the money management).

I don’t know if that’s just the critical thinking skill that Sharon wrote about in this post, or also cultural/class issues as well. My mother probably is a natural at it, but she was also taught about finances from when she was a little girl. My dad was never taught about money, and the army really doesn’t teach you about that either — well, not back in the 40′s anyway.

Having a good education and/or a good job doesn’t mean people get all the skills needed to go with having more money. And an economy that’s going downward shows much more quickly who does and doesn’t have the ability to adapt.

My brothers and I are “middle class”, but all on the more conservative side of spending on stuff, I guess. I think the eldest is best at saving, but we all tend to be into donating to charities and stuff, so none of us has as much in savings as we probably should. It’s really irked me that I’ve had to cut back in recent years, but if we want to be helpful to our community in the future, we’re going to have invest in some hard goods, classes, etc., to be better prepared to do that. Fortunately we can do some things that only take time, not money, so that’s good. I expect we don’t look middle class to most of our friends though, living on the second floor of a farm house as renters, but that’s not really a concern for me.

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Then there are those folks who do know how to manage well and save, but it doesn’t matter because of illness or injury. We have fundraisers in our area every year for families dealing with paying for cancer treatments, major surgery (heck, even ‘minor’ surgery is incredibly expensive). I remember reading about an elderly couple in the 1980s who had 40+K saved, plus a modest income/soc. security, and had to spend it all when the husband fell and broke his hip.

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So yes, there are lots of people who should have saved more, driven smaller vehicles, etc. But there are other reasons for them to be failing now besides being selfish or thoughtless as well. I guess I’m just not into generalizing…

It’s very hard to untangle how much someone “wasted” and how much they tried their best under trying circumstances, at least on an aggregate basis. On an individual basis, it may be possible, and probably desirable if you’re trying to figure out how to allocate your own charity (money, time, garden produce, etc) most fairly.

–sgl

If you are Casandra and frustrated for not being heard, that is more about your own ego of being right, than anything to do with the ones who would not listen. There is nothing more arrogant than “I told you so”. Those of us who “get it” and have been “getting it” for some time now, will not be spared a high electric bill any more than those who do not get it now. If there is a little money or resources, it may last a little longer, but the shit is going to hit the proverbial fan and all but the feudal lords are going to suffer. We need to take lessons from the French. Take them all down to the town square and cut their heads off.