Nope, I disagree. First of all, he is not clear. Messing up sentences continually and randomly throwing in a little gibberish here and there is not clear. Second, he has changed his speaking manner/style as he has gotten bigger - it has gone downhill and less focused. Also, having him say in public that he slept through his college graduations, etc. promotes the dumb image. But, yes, people see "regular guy next door" and slightly dim as being more honest and straightforward. Again, he is no genius, but they have definitely played up his dumbness.
Denouncing materialism would be the same thing as denouncing our way of life. That's what Capitalism is based on and needs to thrive: materialistic customer base. It's at the core of our culture, you can't reject that.
For the way the world and US could be headed in the next 50 years, materialism and the Western way of life hasn't been discussed too much. Signs of a fading American world dominance has been appearing more frequently. If China or India begins to consume at the rate of any other industrialized country that isn't the US, the strain upon our earth will ripple to multiple collapses in distinct ecosystems. For example, we currently consume 25% of the world's oil when China and India combine for 20%. We emit around that much as well. With energy consumption, America uses 15 times more energy than other industrialized countries. China's middle class is around the size of our population. China has surpassed the US as the world's top consumer nation. Though I doubt the Chinese can match Americans on the path towards waste and excess, their sheer number and the possibility of raising 35% of their nation into middle class status would be enough to match us pound for pound in waste and usage. It might not be that bad for the US to lose its world status if it gets Americans to live within their means... That's assuming America will plod along its course without its debt crushing the economy and forcing the government to default like Argentina. A default on that scale would end the current living standard as the world knows it. There are several signs of an impending world collapse either from America's commanding economical influence or because of the emerging statuses of the two most populous nations of the world and the strain it has upon the environment. One think tank has suggested to fundamentally question the concept of progress of civilizations. Traditionally, it could be military might, overall productivity, or perhaps science/tech. In the future, it could be happiness or fullfillment. I guess the 50 year numbers have scared them silly to ask such a seemingly simple premise.... This all could be a matter of when. The current mode of thinking is not to improve the world we we inherit, rather for us to leave it the way it was for the next generation. With a static growth rate, the next generation already has its challenges. All of us are asking science to clean this mess.
He may mess up words here and there, but do you have any doubt where he stands on the issues? Now, Kerry, on the other hand, could be quite eloquent, but what was his final position on Iraq again... I always thought it was liberals who played up Bush's dumbness, and Republicans said they were misunderestimating him.
Actually capitalism succeeds most when people work hard and are thrifty. This is a good reason China has a chance of surpassing the US. They value the future more than the present, and that can make for a very powerful capitalist economy.
Wow, I see a lot of thoughtful debate. My initial post was not very focused in its argument. I went from comparing salaries to engineering. But I think the latter posts focused more on what I was getting at: the fact that the image of an intelligent, well-adjusted individual is not what people strive to be. Instead, people strive to have 2 houses, fancy cars, and be able to flash cash whereever they are. You look at the elite of the elite in financial terms: business owners (e.g. Bill Gates) and entertainers (e.g. Michael Jordan). Business owners are intelligent, extremely focused, eloquent, and perfectionists. Entertainers are flashy, rich, funny, and with a lot of 'personality'. Who does the average kid want to be? The entertainer obviously. Maybe not in terms of career choice, but kids want to be like entertainers in terms of image. Listen to rap, play basketball, drive nice cars. Do they want to function properly in society, wear a suit, and save their cash? Nope. Granted, there are people who do so, but the media is driving young people to copy their 'heroes' on the big stage. USA needs to re-examine its core values. When there's more outrage over sex in a video game than the fact that the video game has huge quantities of violence and chaos, you know we are going downhill.
It's funny. I think Karl Marx predicted that capitalism would be stronger than communism initially because the driving forces behind capitalism is so strong. But then he predicted that capitalism would lead to a gridlock as opposing forces pulled/pushed on one another. We see that now as more and more companies patent thousands of 'ideas' and prevents other people from using those 'ideas' to innovate other inventions, etc.
I agree, a lot of the core values that made USA's economy strong are now better found in places like India and China. Fortune magazine in their current issue has an article on this subject. It is amazing how long and hard students over there work in engineering and sciences. Meanwhile, lots of Americans see college as a time to party and have fun before you have to go work full time.
They have bought in, to be sure. Do you really think that a team of advisors and trainers, etc. have been unable to get him to stop saying "nukular" or to make comments in his speeches that make him seem dim? If so, then you really must think he is dumb.
Also, as we get richer and more materialistc, we don't need or want to work as hard, which causes our economy to weaken. I don't know yet if I blame capitalism's internal contradictions for this. Our government economic policy has changed, now the government lowers interest rates and spends like crazy whenever it feels like it. As a result the incentive is to spend and consume rather than save and invest. So to me, I don't know yet if I blame government "easy money" policy or internal contradictions in capitalism. After all, Americans still put in some of the longest work hours in the world.
I think you always need an extra push, especially from outside. You can't expect people to work extremly hard generation after generation. Look at Germany and Japan, at early stage of their re-build process. Nobody really thought about what I am getting out of this, whether that's more or less than my peers, they all focused on re-building their countries. Up until 80's, both countries reached very high level in terms of economie, productivities, and social wealth. People tended to lay back and enjoy life later on, and they got greedier. Celebrities became their role models, luxury became their desires. People no longer want to work hard. That's why the Japanese spent like crazy in late 80's and early 90's; that's why their real estate was driven insanely high. Elder generation critisize the youth not to work hard, and the youth ridiculed the elderly generation only work to put money into banks, without knowing or planing what to do with that money. Now US as a sole super power in the world today, after the wealthy exuberance in the "Internet age", the drive behind hard working is no longer there. People want to enjoy life without work, and they want to spend tomorrow's money. But, with other countries catching on, and closing in the gap of living standard. People will feel the pressure and start to work hard again, and in my opinion, they will set reasonable expectations. Nothing goes straight up, but up and down. But if the system works, the main trend will always be up. Only, there will be casualties on those down turns. Nowadays, those casualties might be those manufacture workers, whose jobs are outsourced. It's the brutalness but also effectiveness of capitalism. It's difficult but still doable to help those people to re-train and get other jobs. Just it takes a collective effort of the whole society. I certainly don't have a simple formula for it.
Karl Marx is incredibly underrated, when you read his work you can't help but appreciate his utter genius/complexity of his work. The more I look at the world today and the issues we have to deal with, and the direction Europe is moving towards, the more I wonder if Karl Marx will have the last laugh.
Yup. He was a genius. On another note, why does your sig say (3/25/2005) after the T-mac quote? I'm pretty sure T-mac didn't say that in March. Continuing with this debate, I'm curious why America is so anti-intelligence? Europe certainly does not have the same problem, I think. In fact, doesn't the average European think the average America is a stupid, fat, lazy guy? Maybe not lazy. Somewhere down in our history, we started laughing at the smart guys and giving breaks to the stupid kids. It is not PC to discuss kids failing class or to call them stupid. Instead we gave them disorders: ADD, ADHD, etc. 50 years ago, we just called them stupid. When kids came back with an F, you told them to go study. Nowadays, we have to 'understand' what the kids are 'feeling'. Instead of challenging kids to achieve their potential, we cater the the poorest of students by lowering our academic standard. On a different thread, we brag of increasing test scores...maybe it's just because we made the tests easier... Who suffers the most in our education system? The most gifted. These are the kids who are bored out of their minds. They finish their work in half the time and sit in the back playing games because the teacher doesn't have anything else for them to do. They don't understand the meaning of being truly challenged by a subject. It's not until they enter college do they feel the rigors of academics. High school did very little to prepare them... and they fall short of their potential. And what of the rest of the students. They also get shafted because they are underprepared to enter the real world. The world where work has to be done and has to be done correctly. There's no half-assing their work like in school. But at work, they just finish up their work as quickly as possible and go home. After all, that's what they learned from high school... Obviously, there are students who graduate and learn how to live life, work hard and succeed. But they had to learn the hard way. We are so impressed when a kid has taken Calculus in high school. Yet, kids in Asia are taking Calculus in junior high...Where have our standards gone?
Nothing materialistic or wrong about pursuing an education in science or engineering. It should be applauded. In fact - I would have to agree with those here who think that engineering and science students are generally disrespected. Some liberal arts folks (even here) may call them out as materialistic. I'm sorry but the car you drive was created by engineers. The technology this website is built on was created by scientists and engineers. What great development in philosophy has benefitted society recently? Also - engineers get stuck with the nerd label and they don't make that much $$. There are far more college graduate with liberal arts degrees than technical degrees so the notion that liberal arts degrees are discouraged does not fly.
HUH? Engineers are some of the highest paid people in my industry..... No one disrespects engineers....just because most of them interface better with a mouse and Keyboard, does not mean they are not respected.
I'm an engineer. What industry are you in? Can you get me a job? I think a lot of younger people and liberal arts majors hold a degree of contempt for engineers. We are "nerdy" and "unenlightened". It's just not a glamorous career and maybe that's why the US is going to lose this edge one day.
The reason why there are less people in the engineering and sciences majors is that most Americans suck arse in math ans science, which means they leave both fields to Asians and foreigners, generally speaking that is.
