Back in the summer of 1916, during a heat wave and polio epidemic, a few people around New Jersey got eaten by sharks … and 60 years later the summer blockbuster was born.
Jaws was awesome. The title alone brings shivers … nice one, Mr. Benchley
Made people afraid to go in the water.
From a movie. About a man-eating shark. I don’t believe many moviegoers were aware a man had been bitten in half right off the Jersey Shore back in July 1916, so those earlier attacks could not have been the impetus for the fear.
There’s a pretty good/sad movie – Maxed Out (2006) – about the US debt epidemic, and how Americans are so enamored / unable to cope with debt—OOPS looks like money ain’t math tol’jah moving on—such that … for particular people … suicide somehow becomes a workable option.
That somehow … being dead is better than being in debt.
Which is madness. Consider: if a movie can make people afraid to swim, why not a movie to make people afraid to spend? Spiral into Homelessness … from Swarthmore to Skid Row, one woman’s journey into financial hell. Make her beautiful and make the fall really, really far, and the landing really, really hard. People love to see beautiful women suffer; ergo / to wit: porn according to a new friend moving on
So I suppose the point here — if there is one — is to note how … malleable the American psyche is, how easily shifted and moved, such that, if those pesky mankind masters were inclined to fix our collective spending disease that would be a yes but since it is not then that I believe is a no … Too much money = mass, as in tumor, as in compounding interest … yehthat
How frustrating. Not that I needed anyone to hold my hand, exactly, but it would have been nice NOT to have been lead blindly off a cliff.
Nope – didn’t need college, but then there’s the hard sell. Suuurrre you don’t have to go … see how that HS diploma works out for you in the competitive work space …
More matriculation = more money, right? Right? More letters = more dollars? Right? Right? [crickets]
Fine. Great. So glad that happened
Auto mechanic is a job, and the initial investment is fairly low. Should have looked in to that …
… shoulda coulda woulda / didn’t won’t can’t moving on
AND and that would not have solved the problem of the liestyle … just redirected the overspent.
Marriage?
Ha! You like you, but that’s about it … why inflict you upon another moving on
Kids?
HaHA! What makes you think you’re qualified to raise another human being?
Do you have you all worked out? No? Then maybe put a pause on that … not for you, for them.
But that is not the message, and for good reason. {Ecc. 8:8}
The truth in broad strokes would likely create a paradigm shift … no spending no debt no marrying no babies … not sure how the process (you know, life) would continue but maybe we should try it anyway, see what happens … because sick, fat, broke, and stupid—dass ‘Mur-KAH/truckYEH—seems not to be working for the most of us. Did I mention sugar? In everything? Yehthat more later …
So! Again … until there are PSAs warning everyone of the dangers of debt like the dangers of drugs in the 90’s, the 7Qs helpfully remind you/me/us not to spend like a dumbass, and strategically spend when we must spend on anything … the following rules still apply:
- How to spend (Strategically? / Scattershot?) …
- When to spend (Designated Days) …
- Where to spend (Deal? Discount?) …
- What to spend (Now $$$? Then $$$?) …
- Why to spend (Need? Want?) …
- Which to spend? (Cash? Monkey?) …
- Who to spend? (For you? For not you?) …
Ugh. Like, everyday?