11. Witty Post Titles

March 18, 2009 1:24 PM

Which way are the winds blowing in the world today?From New Calvinism to Ecological Intelligence, here are 10 ideas that are changing the world right now.
posted by daniel_charms (14 comments total)

re: "Recycling The Suburbs"

¡TIME FOR A NIGHTLIFE REVIVAL!

Seriously, this mix of abandoned-but-large buildings was an important part of what made Berlin's nightlife scene what it is now (i.e., 72-hour partying, bears and glitter).
posted by LMGM at 1:45 PM on March 18

From the article on "Jobs are the new assets":

"Land was valuable, and capital was valuable, and labor — who cared?" says David Ellison, a Boston-based money manager. "The attitude was, As long as I buy a few homes and invest in a hedge fund, I'm done. I can sit in my chair and watch football games."

"Labor -- who cared"? Anyone who wasn't a frikken money manager, I'd guess. I'm pretty sick of these articles that act like everyone was buying homes and investing. Sure, this is true for wealthy people, but most oAmericans were working its butt off and are still working its butt off if they were lucky to keep their jobs. Anyone who reads this article in particular (not sure about the other ones) and thinks that there is anything profound whatsoever being described is probably part of the problem. These are the people who thought the market would go up forever; these are the people who kept buying houses because houses always increase in value; these are the people who built up the credit bubble. And now they are acting like they are just learning hard lessons or something.

My portfolio didn't drop by 50% because I didn't have a portfolio. My job is my most valuable asset because it is the source of my paycheck, and without a paycheck I can't pay my rent or feed myself.

I have a lot of sympathy for people who lost their savings and will have to retire much later (or not at all). I feel, honestly, indifferent about the financial losses of people who dropped work in favor of making all their money in the stock market or real estate and who now have financial difficulties. In my opinion, the stock market can pretty good for long term growth. So if you put your money in for 20 years or so it will probably grow, and that growth will probably beat inflation. But using it to make money short term can really be dangerous, and people pretended that the stock market isn't a casino when, in fact, that's exactly what it can be.
posted by Deathalicious at 1:55 PM on March 18 [2 favorites]

Oh, hey, a link to time.com, I guess that means another opportunity to read three pages of typed text spread over at least double that many "pages," with no option to view the whole mess with only one click! Hooray!
posted by paisley henosis at 2:04 PM on March 18

paisley henosis: actually, it's more like 20 pages spread over 10 pages, so you're getting a bit more bang for the click this time.
posted by daniel_charms at 2:10 PM on March 18

um
posted by everichon at 2:18 PM on March 18

10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now

Except that many of them only apply to the developed world, and perhaps 4 out of the 10 only to the US.



But here's a fact startling enough to raise eyebrows among Botox enthusiasts: his fellow Brits, famously unconcerned with personal grooming, have tripled the caseload of the country's cosmetic surgeons since 2003. The transfiguration of the snaggletoothed island race is part of a phenomenon taking hold around the developed world: amortality.

Huhuhuhuh, yeah, and all USians are fat and stupid, wouldn't it be be startling to learn they exercise and read books. Oh...wait...fuck you.
posted by Sova at 2:28 PM on March 18 [1 favorite]

So...is it actually true that some form of Calvinism is sweeping America? Or are they making that up? I didn't find much solid evidence in the article.
posted by creasy boy at 2:33 PM on March 18

A few hints of interesting ideas here, but this smacked of yet another tiresome trendspotting piece posing as prophecy of the next Copernican revolution.

And oh god, the layout.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 2:38 PM on March 18

Amortals live among us. In their teens and 20s, they may seem preternaturally experienced. In later life, they often look young and dress younger. They have kids early or late — sometimes very late — or not at all. Their emotional lives are as chaotic as their financial planning. The defining characteristic of amortality is to live in the same way, at the same pitch, doing and consuming much the same things, from late teens right up until death.

This is just a fantasy of the Übermensch, plain and simple. What a weird thing for Time to publish.

So we're supposed to agree that if we had met Madonna or Simon Cowell as a teenager we would have found them "preternaturally experienced"?
posted by creasy boy at 2:39 PM on March 18

As far as I can tell amortality is just "let's never die". They call this a new idea? I've had it for as long as I can remember. It used to be called "immortality". Nice work if you can get it.
posted by creasy boy at 2:42 PM on March 18

Wow, that Survival Store is such a weird idea. Somehow I can't imagine I'll be saving a lot of money shopping anywhere that offers yoga lessons and financial advice.

And this is just an advertising pitch for the store:

These days, a survival-store brand could be cool. It's suddenly hip to save money. Dollar stores are thriving — there's no shame in trading down. Retailers should be straight with their customers, who are in no mood to decipher some muddled marketing pitch. This is a survival store, plain and simple. Come in and look around: all these other people are in the same boat. Have at it. That simple message might just inspire a very sad shopper.

Sure, a store that tries to sell yoga and financial advice to people who are broke as fuck will really take the sting out of the recession.
posted by creasy boy at 2:54 PM on March 18

The winds, they are blowing this way.
posted by everichon at 2:57 PM on March 18 [1 favorite]

Those couple new Calvinist churches have fucking great publicists.
posted by voltairemodern at 4:00 PM on March 18

> Which way are the winds blowing in the world today?

"The answer, my friend, is..." No, wait, that doesn't work.
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:31 PM on March 18