To the Editor:
There is more than one way to look at the world. Take for example; most of us have basically the same material possessions. Some a little nicer than others, but a big house is still a house, a million-dollar car won’t go anywhere a Volkswagen can’t go, and a fine suit covers your back no better than a sweater.
I’m not an envious man. I don’t want a big, obnoxious car, or ten times the living space that any person needs. I don’t want to consume at a level that shames the devil. If I won the lottery, I’d buy land, and I’d take care of it. Once you acquire the essentials, I believe that love and land are what sets one person above another. Everything else is disposable.
America doesn’t need growth to survive. It’s a lie. People may tell you they want growth and progress, but in reality, it’s just a paycheck they’re after. Progress is overrated by idiots and the educated alike. We’ve never known much else, and we have the same problems we’ve always had … and more.
Ignore the cherry-picked facts and figures, and economic growth is little more than cloning ourselves while importing electronics and people that have outstripped their own nation’s resources. There isn’t much benefit to the things that should matter, unless you count funneling money from oil extraction to fund conservation, which is ironic, don’t you think?
The population should have plateaued by now, and with intelligent leadership, we could be managing our security, health, environment and quality of life at least as well as before. Having less people would not bring back the country that Lewis and Clark adventured through, but it could give us some space. It doesn’t all have to be so productive.
Adam Connor
Greenfield
