First of all, I freaking love the socialist rose logo. I began researching different types of economic and political systems last October after the economic meltdown on Wall Street, and I fell in love with socialism. It's a difficult system, I think, because it relies heavily on morals, at least for the party leaders, thus I'm not sure how it would fare on the macroeconomic scale...But, you know, capitalism relies on morals too, and when you have immoral people, you get issues like CEO's spending taxpayer money on bonuses for their cronies and office redecorating, not to mention the mortgage crisis that was basically a greed-gone-wrong scenario that started this whole mess. So, any economic system relies on ethics, and when people are immoral, they go wrong, though in different ways.
And socialism, too, because it is more about the stuff you need than the stuff you want, I think it would be a great thing for this world. I mean, everyone, at least in countries with a lot of disposable income like America, is caught up with buying whatever they fancy, and not thinking about whether they really need it or not. And then, like three months later, they'll throw it into the trash. And this is just killing the environment, you know, because we have to extract minerals from the ground to make products, or cut down plants to make the products, each time hurting the ecosystem that the object once belonged to. So, we've got this pulverized earth, but that's not the end of it, because we need to make the product in a factory, which uses power, and we also need to take it to the store, which uses gasoline.
Not to mention the highway and the store themselves are on what used to be a virgin forest or field, and they're only taking away from animal's habitats, as well as the concrete and asphalt they lie on are impermeable, which means that rainwater has to travel farther to find permeable rocks, and, when it does, it floods the permeable area, which just ruins so many ecosystems. This is, of course, so we can buy shit we don't need, like new tops or computers, or whatever.
Of course, I am as guilty as you. But there are ways we can be less guilty, and I know that all this green living stuff is shoved down everyone's throats these days, but I'm not advertising anything, nor am I promoting anything (except maybe the socialist party), so I advise you to listen. I mean, if people would just save their money instead of spending it on senseless shit, imagine how much more you could do. Say you make $500 a week. You spend 100 on food, maybe 300 on bills. If you save that extra 100 instead of going out and spending it, in a year you'll have $5,200 at your disposal. In two, that becomes $10,400.
It's silly to assume you won't go out on weekends or buy presents for family, or go on trips, so I'll assume you'll actually have $7,000 at the two year mark. Still, that's a nice piece of money. You could save it, slowly amassing a small fortune, or you could go on a nice vacation to some exotic place with it. That's much more worthwhile than the the random knickknacks that you may have bought, half of which you'd probably have given away or thrown out by the two year mark.
Or, if you genuinely want to treat yourself, which is understandable, go to a secondhand store. Seriously. The stuff there is more interesting, more diverse than the stuff at the mainstream stores, as well as it doesn't add any more pollution to the world, because you're not the first person to have it. Hell, it prevents pollution, actually, because the object is going into your hands rather than a landfill or incinerator.
So that would be my environmentalist rant for the day, something for you to think about. It helps the world, saves you money, maybe lets you go on some nice trips, and makes you feel better about yourself and your savings techniques, as well as your self-control, for it is much easier to just buy shit than it is to save money, I know. And, uh, that's about it.
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