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Originally Posted by zerospinboson
Don't be silly. You're from the country with the highest per capita debt in the world, both when looking at personal and when looking at government debt.
The irrational need to have whatever you desire - which really is just another manifestation of the once-in-vogue this-is-what-makes-america-great consumerism - is utterly ingrained in the way you are raised, and what you are taught through watching TV, "success stories" in the papers or in book form, etc. "Keeping up with the joneses", getting mortgages for houses that are oodles above what you can comfortably pay for, but which doesn't matter because mortgages aren't personal debt, so you can just turn in the key and move on once you run out of cash, needing new cars every year or two years, all of it are just different sides of the same die.
Being a consumer and the need for instant gratification of desires is a large part of what the USA is about (note: I'm talking about the cultural myths that you share and are so taught, and not so much about specific people), and your saying that you don't like some of the behavior that follows from being that way probably won't really fix that, unless your "opinion" somehow becomes the norm.
If you don't like this fact, hey, I agree.. But I'm not sure it's very productive to blame others for believing in a cultural myth that is so wide-spread, and one that you statistically also believe(d) in, at least until recently.
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Yes, greed is only endemic to the US. I’d recommend purchasing a few books by say, evolutionary psychologists such as Steven Pinker or Daniel Dennett – then, after having done so, we can have an honest discussion w/r/t human behavior as it relates to greed and selfishness.
But if you want to use the current financial collapse and what you perceive a special brand of greed homegrown in the US as an excuse to justify file-sharing, well, you go right ahead, you’re certainly entitled to your ignorance.
The irony, is that you’re defending the very greed you rail against, the, I’ll take what I want and to hell with everyone else attitude all American’s apparently share.