I don't think of myself as old, perhaps middle-aged, but not old. As you get older you see changes in society some of which are not good and it is not just reminiscing. At the moment I am thinking of our attitude to debt. My parents grew up with the idea that you saved for something and then bought it. Me too. Now we have this idea that we can enjoy life today and pay for it tomorrow.
Take, for example the private funding initiatives. It doesn't matter what kind of building it is. We can build schools or hospitals and nobody has to pay for it. Unfortunately they do. Even worse, we pay more for the privilege. It may look good to have a lot of new resources but we don't see the hidden costs. Well sometimes we do. My local Jessops camera shop closed last year.
In the Guardian (30/9/09) there is an article about Jessops. Control of this group has been handed over to the banks because of "unrealistic debt-fuelled growth" and Jessops is only the latest in a "string of loan casualties".
It doesn't matter whether it is personal debt caused by working hard for a degree. It doesn't matter if it government borrowing which may win votes but costs us more. It doesn't matter if it is corporate debt. Let's cut our coat according to our cloth.
Change the world
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