The real problem in the West

The real problem in the West is that the pride of Self-reliance and Self-sufficiency has died. People think, "Well if I can buy it at the store why should I make it? If I can call a repairman why should I fix it?". That's exactly the problem, we can't take care of ourselves anymore.

Today's world is about the constant lust for material items; new shoes, new clothes, new computer, new car, new house. People can't settle for what they have or try their best to keep what they have in the best of shape when they just think they can run out and get something new. This all spins back to the inflationary fiat money which we base our economy around, the money provides for new things and gives people more wealth but that wealth is not truly earned.

When you simply work with money to make money that is not earning your money that is called playing the system. When people make things that others use such as computers, cars, machinery and other goods that is called making money. When the product you produced is consumed by someone else. It's always been part of the capitalist economic model to have number crunchers to make you the most profit, but that shouldn't be a large share of the workforce.

Our economies have switched from producer based to consumer based. Our jobs have been sent overseas which has led to people becoming reliant on the government for assistance until they can enter the services sector because manufacturing and agriculture are all but dead. This has allowed for the government to raise taxes and enforce a nanny state style system on us all.

Just think to yourself, how many people do you know who can repair their own vehicle? Fix their own house? Maybe build their own home? Can grow their own food?

If I asked you that question just 50 years ago you could have probably named 80% of the people you know. Now you would be lucky to have just 20% of the people you know who could do that.

Citizens of the "civilized" world are nothing more than livestock.

We sit in lines, called traffic, to get miked for intellectual property.

They we go the feed pens for "ipod/phone/pads" and over gadgetry.

We buy the drugs that keep us alive but make us sick.

We are milked till death and conditioned to attack anyone that does not subscribe.

The problem is that we have lost our humanity for technocratic stewardship.

S&F my friend. I once read this article called the marble game. To test yourself, and whether or not your self sufficient. You get a bag of marbles and a bowl, for everything you own, you put a marble in the bowl.

When your done get another bowl and put what you can repair yourself, or live without, or find another resource for and put it in the bowl. When you notice one bowl is full, and the other has very few, you can then decide what you think is important, or choose to learn to either live without it, or learn something about it, in order to maintain it yourself.

This is the type of information that is not entirely understood by many, and its good to see that some people care about these things.

Peace, NRE.

Yes, most of the guys I know including myself are quite self sufficient and can fix just about anything we own. However we are the atypical blue collar redneck beer on Saturday night crowd and probably don't have that much at common with the American population at large, or do we?
Your point though, most of the population does live in large metropolitan areas, many times more lived on farms some 50 years ago, to grow enough food to make it a help and not a hobby requires the room to do so, hard to have in metropolitan Dallas, Chicago, New York, etc.
We don't fix things like we did because so many things have become cost prohibitive to do so. Little things like mending an old pair of pants or a shirt just don't add up, unless you have lot's of extra time on your hands or are absolutely destitute it just doesn't make sense to not get a new one. The global economy change has done that, our leaders here in America made it profitable for a shirt company to setup in China and sell Americans shirts for seven dollars. Granted they are cheap shirts meant to be regularly replaced. But a good, got that ten years ago and wear it at least twice a week to work shirt and it's still good, made here in America by proud American worker with solid made here material kind of shirt today costs eighty bucks and the working guy that would wear it can't pay eighty bucks for a shirt, after all he needs at least three to get through a five day week if he does laundry twice a week. So in ten years he goes through a dozen replacements for that shirt and that's what we have become because those well made, I better take damn good care of them items just about don't exist anymore to give us that option.
As a society we don't fix our own cars like we did because of their modern complexity. Partly to blame is government. Yes cars are times and again safer in a crash today, but was it worth the cost in R&D, lost fuel mileage, tax paid government crash testing, and drastically more complex, heavier, and frankly bland automobiles that we get to drive today? Not to mention more expensive. And back in the day you could tinker and learn, fairly cheap. I learned a lot that way. Go on ahead and burn something up under the hood of that new Chevy (or whatever) today, then call your dealer and get a price on that (likely foriegn made) something you broke. And the car is still down. Now you wish you'd just paid a pro to do it in the first place. And on that point, that pro is just a blue collar guy like me with his own trade to do, he gotta make a paycheck.
Houses? Well I think most folks can and still do their own painting when needed, at least around here. And roofing, well even in my kiddo days it seemed that got farmed out. I don't know anyone that can't change a faucet or a leaky toilet valve.
So I guess I must at least in part disagree this is what is wrong with the West as you say (likely meaning the USA).
No...I stand by what got me to come to this site to begin with. What is wrong with the "West" is too damn much government, not enough stay out of my business. Or as my dad says, too much chiefs and not enough indians.

That is the way they want us.

Consumers. Consumers of this, consumers of that.

Be it products or the vast array of dis, mis, or whatever information.

I fall in the category of the previous member. Can pretty fix or build anything. Grew up on a farm so familiar with all those aspects of self sufficiency.

I think we are a dying breed. Specialization is the sign of the times I guess.

Look at the construction field. There are barely anymore REAL carpenters anymore. A carpenter used to be able to do any job that construction entails. Now you have the layout guys, the stick framers, floors, pick up, finish etc etc etc.

The main reasoning behind this is to make people cogs that can be easily replaced and trained. Instead of taking 5 years of training it takes 2 weeks to get the person up and running and cost effective.

S&F Misoir.