A Spoiled Generation
...sitting here on my lunch break, typing away on my cute little 700m dell notebook and that's what crosses my mind...
We've got it all here in N.America. Cars, houses, cell phones, computer desktops and notebooks, TVs, multifunction systems. Whatever we want, we can (pretty much have). It's not just the new generation of children and teenagers now, it's all of us young and old - we have all these things.
We've become so 'advanced' in technology and posessions that we're actually falling behind in other sense. The idea and notion of using our brains and hard work are slowly dimming. Who needs their brain when there's a calculator for math, a fridge to keep things cold, grocery stores to get our food, a stove top/microwave to cook and heat things up, a house with heating and cooling, a cell phone to communicate and a computer to store everything.
What would happen if one day there is NO electricity supply from then on. How would we survive. Years before all these technologies arose, people did survive, BUT my question is whether we could do it now? There may be a few who could for a while (avid campers and handy people with those survival skills), but for the most part, I think this part of the world would just go crazy and slowly disappear.
I know I'm "spoiled" having grown up in a very comfortable environment with many things provided. And I'm only realizing more now, how many of the things we have here our simply 'luxuries' in life and are counted as 'necessities' here in North America.
Saving Money
I have a new BC cell#. Same phone and they waived the "$20 Fee Charge and $10 Upgrade Fee" because I kept 'complaining' and wanted to cancel from Bell Mobility. So they were nice in the end. I also switched my cell phone plan to a 'Pay & Talk' as of Nov 27 because I'm paying way too much for my cell phone here and not really using it here. It will go from ~$60/mo to $25/2mo (i.e. $12.50/mo as long as I stick to $25 usage for 2mo). Hence, do not call me on my cell phone after Nov 27. It's only for me to use in emergency, while driving and for messages from work.
Gas is expensive here and I'm spending quite a bit just driving back and forth to work. The average here is 93-95cents/L (or around 5-10cents/L higher than Toronto). So, I've signed up for a PetroCanada Mastercard and their PetroPoints program - the combined perk results in a 5.5 cents/L savings plus their bonus points on their gas everytime I fill up. So, the last time I filled up, it was 87cents intead of 92.5cents. That's a huge savings over time!
...sitting here on my lunch break, typing away on my cute little 700m dell notebook and that's what crosses my mind...
We've got it all here in N.America. Cars, houses, cell phones, computer desktops and notebooks, TVs, multifunction systems. Whatever we want, we can (pretty much have). It's not just the new generation of children and teenagers now, it's all of us young and old - we have all these things.
We've become so 'advanced' in technology and posessions that we're actually falling behind in other sense. The idea and notion of using our brains and hard work are slowly dimming. Who needs their brain when there's a calculator for math, a fridge to keep things cold, grocery stores to get our food, a stove top/microwave to cook and heat things up, a house with heating and cooling, a cell phone to communicate and a computer to store everything.
What would happen if one day there is NO electricity supply from then on. How would we survive. Years before all these technologies arose, people did survive, BUT my question is whether we could do it now? There may be a few who could for a while (avid campers and handy people with those survival skills), but for the most part, I think this part of the world would just go crazy and slowly disappear.
I know I'm "spoiled" having grown up in a very comfortable environment with many things provided. And I'm only realizing more now, how many of the things we have here our simply 'luxuries' in life and are counted as 'necessities' here in North America.
Saving Money
I have a new BC cell#. Same phone and they waived the "$20 Fee Charge and $10 Upgrade Fee" because I kept 'complaining' and wanted to cancel from Bell Mobility. So they were nice in the end. I also switched my cell phone plan to a 'Pay & Talk' as of Nov 27 because I'm paying way too much for my cell phone here and not really using it here. It will go from ~$60/mo to $25/2mo (i.e. $12.50/mo as long as I stick to $25 usage for 2mo). Hence, do not call me on my cell phone after Nov 27. It's only for me to use in emergency, while driving and for messages from work.
Gas is expensive here and I'm spending quite a bit just driving back and forth to work. The average here is 93-95cents/L (or around 5-10cents/L higher than Toronto). So, I've signed up for a PetroCanada Mastercard and their PetroPoints program - the combined perk results in a 5.5 cents/L savings plus their bonus points on their gas everytime I fill up. So, the last time I filled up, it was 87cents intead of 92.5cents. That's a huge savings over time!
3 Comments:
At 7:17 a.m.,
ebrian said…
This is a neat trick I've discovered while shopping with FutureShop. Whenever I tried to return anything that was 100+ they would try to offer me a discount. And for companies like cell-phones or cable where you pay monthly fees, they are even more scared of losing your business!
At 9:34 a.m.,
chiquitawonder said…
I agree with the first half of your blog. We *have* become spoiled and accustomed to our way of life... such that most of us don't have any idea of what people in developing nations live with. The point of course is, can we see beyond ourselves enough to share our wealth?
At 9:55 p.m.,
C said…
In an ideal world, there would be sharing. But I don't think people can share the wealth equally - it's the Capitalist thinking. And then there's caution with the sharing such as in a Socialist/Communist system, which in an ideal world could work but b/c of natural greed and sloth, somehow it doesn't work - as in how the Socialist countries we see.
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