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The OnLy Thing People Are Interesed in Today is Earing More Money
Once upon a time there lived a beautiful young woman and a handsome young
man. They were very poor, but as they were deeply in love, they wanted to get
married. The young people’s parents shook their heads. “You can’t get married
yet.” They said. Wait till you get a good job with good prospects. So the young
people waited until they found good jobs with good prospects and they were able
to get married. They were still poor, of course, they didn’t have a house to
live in or any furniture, but that did’t matter. They young man had a good job
with good prospects, so large organizations lent him the money he needed to buy
a house, some furniture, all the latest electrical appliances and a car. The
couple lived happily ever after paying off debts for the rest of their lves. And
so ends another modern romantic fable.
We live in a materialistic society and are trained from our earlist years
to be acquistive. Our possessions, yours and mine are clearly labeled from early
childhood. When we grow old enough to earn a living, it does not surpise us to
discover that success is measured in terms of the money you earn. We spend the
whole of ourlives keeping up with our neighbors, the Joneses. If we buy a new
television set , Jones is bound to buy a bigger and better one. If we buy a new
car, we can be sure that Jones will go one better and get two new cars: one for
his wife and one for himself. The most amusing thing about this game is that
Joneses and all the neighbors who are struggling frantically to keep up with
them are spending borrowed money kindly provided, at a suitable rate of
interest, of course, by friendly banks, insurance companies, etc.
It is not only affluent societies that people are obsessed with the idea of
making more money. Consumer goods are desirable everywhere and modern industry
deliberately sets out to create new markets. Gone are the days when industrial
goods were made to last forever. The wheels of industry must be kept turning.
Built-in obsolescence provides the means; goods are made to be discarded. Cars
get tinnier and tinnier. You no sooner acquire this year’s model than you are
thinking about its replacement.
This materialistic outlook has seriously influenced education. Fewer and
fewer young people these days acquire knowledge only for its own sake. Every
course of studies must lead somewhere. i.e. to a bigger wage packet. The demand
for skilled personnel for exceeds the supply and big companies compete with each
other to recruit students before they have completed their studies. Tempting
salaries and “fringe benefits” are offered to them. Recruiting tactics of this
kind have led to the brain drain, the process by which highly skilled people
offer their services to the highest bidder. The wealthier nations deprive their
poorer neighbors of their most able citizens. While Mammon is worshipped as
never before, the rich get richers and the poor, poorer.
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