The fundamental issue is that people today believe they are entitled to nice things. I am not sure exactly what or what caused this structural shift in materialism. I was thinking about it when I was mowing the lawn....about how can I avoid this materialistic shift. I could, then amass a large amount of money....but to do what? Just to save...that seems pointless because the whole purpose of saving is to buy things later. I just do not wish to buy things.
This led to thoughts on religion. There needs to be a religion, or civic group where people work together to do the right thing. Not this, if you don't do x, y, and z you are going to hell kind of religion...but a kind where people don't focus on certain acts to get to heaven.....me, personally, am not really concerned about heaven or hell, but would rather focus my efforts on improving the welfare around me. If I can find a group that collectively delay low value consumption (like that TV I mentioned) and willingly transfer those funds to high value consumption (such as after school programming, night school, job training, etc.) then things will be better off. I finished mowing the yard before I found a good solution...