The 2.5 evils

Think I'm headed in a more serious vein today, consider yourself warned. 

My cousin mentioned in her blog about a study a guy did.  He bought a house built in 1940 or so and wondered why the original builder made the kitchen cabinets so small.  So he did some looking into it and come to find out that since that time our plate size has increased by something like 50%.  That is huge!

 We should be using what are now our salad plates.  Its not that we need more food, its just that we demand more and need bigger stuff to put it on (my summation).  So this got me thinking to conversations I've had before about my opinion of two things that is dragging our society down.  Lack of personal accountability and greed, which falls under excess, so I'm making it the 2.5 evils.  Don't check my math, but I'm counting excess and greed as 1.5.  Don't ask me why, maybe it sounded catchy.  Maybe its an area where I'm guilty of excess, who knows.

So before I dig into this I'll refer you to my first blog titled "disclaimer."  A couple of those will apply here.  Especially the not-necessarily-educated-but-this-is-how-I-feel opinion one.  I'll also mention that I'm not completely innocent either.

Our society today is bent on being rich, but has no desire to build the foundation first.  How else do you think the states make so much money on lottery and the casino's have an extra buck or two themselves?  So what happens?  Sure a few people will get rich using this method and even fewer will keep it, but for the bulk of society it ends up being a pipe dream that they spend their dollars on rather than using that money to increase knowledge, invest, build, and/or grow.  Basically build a foundation, take the time to plant seeds, have them grow, then reap the harvest.  It has to be now!  Want hot food?  Grab something prepackaged and nuke it!

I think about all the stuff that my Dad has.  I want that same type stuff and I'd like it sooner than later cause I grew up used to his stuff (don't worry Dad I'm not wishing we were destitute), the catch is he's been acquiring that stuff longer than I've been alive.  Here's the deal, the credit companies know this too.  You know, I never once to ask them for a bigger limit, they offered it to me and it was usually when I was close to being maxed out.  Neat trick. Fortunately, I've never gotten myself totally over my head with plastic, but alot of people have and this is one of the reasons.  Whether they don't care or just don't know better, people take the bait.  They gotta have that stuff or live that life and don't want to wait for it.

Maybe the .5 can be lack of patience. We'll use that, cover for my bad math.

The other big evil  is lack of personal accountability.  You don't hear many people today say "I was a knucklehead."  If somebody screws something up or does something stupid it's gotta be somebody elses fault.  I'm not discounting the fact that sometimes people get into situations that are outside of their control, it actually was someone elses fault.  So lets get that clear right off.  On the other hand, there are people out there that just have to blame their idiocy on someone else.  Why do you think there are disclaimers?  You know on the coffee cups "contents may be hot." Duh, you just ordered coffee, don't dump it over your head.  I wonder how much money has been spent by people trying to protect other people and in turn themselves?  Waste.  I'm not talking about a clear liquid chemical that looks like water here.  Need labels for that.  I'm talking about the typical everyday stuff.  I'm waiting for the day that there is a warning label to not read the main really stupid long disclaimer while walking or driving heavy equipment, because you can run into something and hurt yourself.  I should find a list of stupid warning signs and post them, but while you wait I beleive Bill Engval did a bit on it.  You just may want to check that out cause I might not get to it on my end.

Fun thing is you mix these two and now there is a lawsuit for everything.  I wonder how fast we could get through criminal trials if we weren't burning up judges on stupid lawsuits?  I wonder how many small businesses have gone under because they didn't brainstorm that one thing that would have protected them from somebody that can't man up and/or wants to get rich?  I wonder how much money would be in circulation if it wouldn't be tied up in the cost of protecting someone from themself?  There are some things out there that have more ink in "don't do this" than the actual instructions.  Just follow the pickin instructions and everything will be fine!!!  Oh wait, forgot about those just looking to get rich so they won't read them anyway, we honest people should sue you for making us have to read a 20 page book, just to lace our shoes (ok taking some liberty here, but deal with it).

So I didn't get to excess in general, but I'm being mindful of the one follower I might have left after this.  So endeth my rant.

Enjoy your day!

Oh and its my cousins fault, if she wouldn't have mentioned plate sizes.... :)