“Having fun is the most productive thing you can do”, says the kid (Logan Lerman) mentoring his mentor (Aaron Eckhart) in the movie Meet Bill. But do you agree with this statement? Before you answer, may I bias you by quoting one more movie Accepted; reinforcing the concept. Often I am tempted to agree but lately I have my suspicions. Today the U.S. is losing out against other more competitive nations, its dollar value dropping against other major currencies, and there are job losses everywhere. Haven’t we in North America taken this concept (having fun) a little too seriously and gone into excess in all aspects of our lives?
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To clarify what I mean, I name just a few:
Rise and fall of the subprime market:
We tried to ‘own’ the biggest house our ‘borrowed money’ can buy and burnt ourselves in the process. Never mind if we can really afford the mortgage in the years to come, or even if we can afford the five bedroom house, we look around to see if can upgrade to a seven bedroom house in a more expensive neighborhood.
Eating junk food and watching too much TV
One (eating junk food) complementing the other (watching too much TV) has made America the home to obese people. Couch potatoes, eating burger / French fries, downing carbonated beverages (loaded with sugar) and watching endless food commercials on TV is all too familiar a scene and dismissed as part of having harmless fun. As a consequence losing weight has become a big business and is not coming cheap for the ‘large’ male/female person.
Playing too much of computer / video Games/live chat online:
When not ‘busy’ watching TV, young and old alike immerse themselves in computer / video games. Here there is some action, compared to watching TV passively. But still the opportunity cost is too high for both the individual and the nation. Maybe one day, we may wake up and realize that a whole generation is lost playing; while there are many other urgent issues to be attended to. By then it will be too late.
Driving around in our gas guzzling SUVs:
Recently I happened to see the comments to one of Kal’s cartoons. Someone defends our ‘fun’ in driving around in such monsters, by saying that we are blessed with abundance (again an overused word by our motivational gurus in North America). “Why would anyone take a bath in the sink when there is a shower nearby?” was his question.
I also hear someone say, “Going into excess in anything is the very character of North America and defines who we are. We show to the rest of the world what it means to live life on the edge. We act and the rest of the world simply reacts. Only out of such excess behavior come innovation, business opportunity and lots of jobs.”
Maybe. But is it wise to pay the price often? Whatever has happened to walking the path of golden mean? I believe we will be in lot less trouble if we had done so.
2 comments on “Having fun is the most productive thing you can do”
very insightful, North America has nearly 40% of the worlds wealth and only 5% of its population thats why we live the way we do. we were born into a society where everything is driven by the economy (money)… we literally take everything forgranted, our wants have become needs (at least according to the media and ads we’re bombarded with all the time)… since some of the worlds cleanest water comes out of the tap and we dont have to walk 6km to fetch it we dont realize how essential it is to live, what we do realize is that we “need” the newest model of the ipod or the latest game so that we dont fall behind in our social circles… its true i’ve seen too many people buy houses they can’t afford simply because they’re there, it even seems to be a competition within families ‘who can buy the biggest house?’… whoever it is when it comes time to pay the mortgage they end up living paycheck to paycheck when they could have settled for saftey, financial security and a decent sized home. What people really need is substantial happiness that lasts longer than the temporary satisfaction of making a purchase… theres so much more to life and people than all the junk we’re tricked in to thinking will make us happy by the media, you have more when you want less, lets peel the material fringe away from out lives and count our blessings
Having fun is the most productive thing you can do: I think this is meant for enjoying your occupation. But the article is so true of who we are and what we do. Soon if not presently, we will all feel the crunch as this economy dictates a new way of living.