We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
I am not sure what is meant by the quantity item, but these seem like, as we say, ordinary, cultural bourgeois values/standards/expectations, which are not endorsed by everybody. Fortunately, they are endorsed by enough people to provide for those who can not or do not.
"Since the discouraging fiasco in the Garden of Eden, all the world has been a place conspicuous in its scarcity of resources, contributing heavily to an abundance of various sorrows and sins. People have had to adjust and adapt to limitations of what is available to satisfy unlimited desires. Some individuals and societies have been much more successful than others in thus making do.
The study of economics deals with this yoke of scarcity and the modes of behavior intended to minimize the pains and maximize the gains of getting along—behavior which is restricted and channeled, sometimes helpfully and efficiently but often hurtfully and wastefully, by the social ground rules and institutions we adopt and have had imposed upon us.
To survive (much less to prosper a bit) in this vale of tears has required enormous, unrelenting effort. The vast variety of economic activity—bidding and offering in the market, producing and consuming currently, and saving and investing for the future—typically entails coordinated decision making and labor. But even seemingly simple operations of production and distribution can require contributions by many people, most of whom never meet or directly communicate with each other and are located in scattered corners of the world.
Consider this book. Thousands of people—in addition to the authors—contributed to placing this book in your hands. Some made paper; some made ink and glue; some edited the manuscript; some printed, warehoused, promoted, and distributed the product. No single person completely planned and supervised all that, and no one was a specialist in performing each of the myriad tasks. Yet, you have the book."
From the opening paragraphs – of Armen Alchian’s and William Allen’s Universal Economics (2018; Jerry Jordan, ed.)
"I think then that the species of oppression by which democratic nations are menaced is unlike anything which ever before existed in the world. I am trying myself to choose an expression which will accurately convey the whole of the idea I have formed of it, but in vain . . . I seek to trace the novel features under which despotism may appear in the world. The first thing that strikes the observation is an innumerable multitude of men all equal and alike, incessantly endeavoring to procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they glut their lives. . . . Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications, and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks on the contrary to keep them in perpetual childhood; it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing."
There is an old Hotel/Pub in Marble Arch, London , which used to have gallows adjacent to it. Prisoners were taken to the gallows (after a fair trial of course) to be hung. The horse-drawn dray, carting the prisoner, was accompanied by an armed guard, who would stop the dray outside the pub and ask the prisoner if he would like ''ONE LAST DRINK''. If he said YES, it was referred to as ONE FOR THE ROAD. If he declined, that prisoner was ON THE WAGON.
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot and then once a day it was taken and sold to the tannery. If you had to do this to survive you were "piss poor", but worse than that were the really poor folk, who couldn't even afford to buy a pot, they "Didn't have a pot to piss in" and were the lowest of the low.
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be in England. Here are some facts about the 1500s: Most people got married in June, because they took their yearly bath in May and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women, and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water!"
We flatter ourselves with the idea that we make our own decisions, arrive at our own rational conclusions, etc.
If psychology has taught us about the unconscious influences that tend to control our thoughts and choices, the current social "science" of influence and persuasion addresses the external forces that control our minds. It is darn interesting, but depressing.
As a prof of Marketing, Berger surely knows how to sell us but gives us tools to see through it all too.
Higher Ed is not what it was designed to be. Everybody learns his job via apprenticeship, whether it is plumbing, law, finance, bank teller, medicine, or a fishing guide.
I have been a tourist in Ireland twice, long ago. Ten days and you can get the gist of the interesting and charming sights on the whole island. In this way, I think Ireland is like Southern France and Scotland. I mean that these are fine places just to be in, and not to be a tourist. Delightful getaways without frantic running and driving around.
Ireland has a number of great house inns/hotels, some near golf and some not. A favorite is Ballyfin which is not near any famous golf. It's about horseback, cycling, hiking, reading, dining, and immersing onseself in the green Irish countryside.
Life has convinced me not to be. Far too many human qualities are inborn, both strengths and frailties. It is "psycho-utopian" to believe otherwise.
I know my limits pretty well, and have always been determined to blame my disappointments on myself. That's the best, most honest and self-critical approach even when it is ego-damaging. Ego-damaging is soul fertilizer, the wise men say.
An interesting podcast below about Americans working past "conventional" retirement age. The first half praises the personal and productivity value of working at least until 70, and the second part has somebody claiming that a later retirement age turns mature adults into slaves.
There is no free lunch. I tend towards working until one can no longer work, but I get some pushback from that view. If I retired, I really do not see what good I would add to the world, to my family, or to my finances. I hate the idea of feeling useless, put out to pasture. However, I have seen lives blossom in retirement, but more often I have seen lives shrink and shrivel in retirement. There can be a tendency for regression. Remember, retirement (government savings plans, social security) is a recent invention, from the 1880s by Otto von Bismarck in Germany.
Sure, to save Social Security (SS is a fait accompli), I'd gladly move "the conventional age" to 70 or 72 rather than, as it is now, the maximum. People live longer and healthier than in the past, and thus have more to offer, and longer. Retirement is not an entitlement. SS is. Of course, despite SS, anybody can work as long as they choose.
We flatter ourselves with the idea that we make our own decisions, arrive at our own rational conclusions, etc.