tandempower

I see this mentality a lot in public discussions, that America is being 'poored.' I think it's a dangerous viewpoint because it enables people to consider themselves victims on a collective (national) level, which gives them the feeling that it's not their fault/responsibility individually and thus promotes scapegoating. This is what happened in the 1930s among Germans who couldn't accept economic decline going on. Debt was part of that situation too, as it now seems to be for Greece, and part of the problem was that debt was levied at the national level as a response to WWI. US national debt has also been emphasized for the last 20 years or so, not as a punishment for war, but as a consequence of imbalanced government spending.

The question is whether people can come to terms with the idea of 'pooring' for the sake of escaping the cycles of debt and repayment at so many levels. For me personally, living car free does not feel like 'pooring' because the money saved on auto expenses makes me that much richer. Maybe to some people, having a new car and spending a lot of money otherwise makes them feel rich even if the money they're spending is all borrowed. From my perspective, prosperity comes as you grow more independent of debt and spending generally. Living car free is a big part of this for me. If I for some reason gave in to all the peer pressure that I get to drive, it would feel like it was 'pooring' because I would see it as backsliding into a budget that is more likely to drown me in expenses and debt, not to mention imprisoning me in a metal cage with windows and a sleekly-designed interior for a significant portion of my time.