Winners of "Crazy Consumer Culture" Contest, Some Concluding Remarks on Class Lectures & A Reminder

First, winners of our little contest. Each will receive two bonus points:

#2 High levels of credit card debt brought on by social pressures on people to consume more. Status competition and addiction to instant gratification.
THE WINNER, 7 votes, Johnson R.

#3 Places like Sam's Club which encourage buying in bulk, which in turn encourages overconsumption, especially overeating and obesity when perishable food items are bought in bulk.
TIE FOR SECOND PLACE, 5 votes, Jessica G.

#17 Advertising that preys on people with bad credit; often leads people to become victims of foreclosure or re-possession, which only damages their credit and finances further.
TIE FOR SECOND PLACE, 5 votes, Justin S.

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Second, I'd like to add just a few remarks to my lecture yesterday in which I closed with a couple statements from E. Jordan and W. Morris which I believe describe a standard of what constitutes a well-ordered and healthy society.

A couple final observations are in order regarding those statements of a good society.
1. One can easily gather from them that such conditions as poverty, hunger, homelessness, unemployment clearly represent problems, both for the individual and the larger society. Meaningful work is especially important to individual and social health -- it is an ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE OF LIFE. We build our lives around our work, what we do. When there is a lack of work, meaningless or unrewarding work, or work that undermines or destroys that larger order of society, this is a serious social problem.

2. Insofar as our society, or any society, falls short of this standard of a healthy society described above (as all existing societies do in varying degrees), we can say that something is wrong, that social problems exist, that we have work to do.

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A REMINDER: Remember tomorrow (Thurs. 2/21) we'll be seeing the documentary, "Affluenza," on which the book is based. Following that, the families will get together to discuss it and address the questions I posed in describing this family activity. See Monday 2/18 post.