I can’t help but wonder if a more important conversation would have been over the fact 17 percent of children under the age of five in the U.S. are now at risk of hunger?

It seems ever easier to discuss abundance than depravity–for even the decision to “buy less” and “save up” is coming from a point of privilege; what we don’t hear are from those for whom neither is an option.

On a final note, I agree with Don’s comment that unresolved issues can drive purchasing. Another thing to consider, perhaps, is that there are few public places that are non-commercialized. Look into any coffee shop at 11 p.m.–at least in my city–and it’s nearly full. As I think these people have wireless and tea at home, I suspect what they are seeking is human contact. Too often we have only commercial–and now corporate–spaces left to fulfill our need to socialize.

As a parent of two little girls (not yet four years old, as in the marshmallow experiment), I will be curious to watch my kids’ personalities develop, and I plan to try to parent them in a way that will encourage the qualities of “distraction” that Prof. Mischel talked about. Being able to control oneself in the face of temptations such as marshmallows and credit cards will take them a long way in life.

But, if we are going to extrapolate:

If it weren’t for easy credit or mortgage refinancing available to regular folks (under dodgy long-term prospect, often), wouldn’t the recession have started months or years earlier?

And as far as an example of delayed gratification goes, how about the tens of millions of Americans in the working and middle classes who watched corporate profits, executive salaries, and the stock market go up during the last expansion, but when they asked for raises, were told “You’re lucky to have a job” by a corporation or “wage increases for commoners will make America less competitive with (Chinese slave labor or other threat inserted here)” by about all of the mainstream media?

(PS: I was in and out of radioshot during the program, so I don’t know if these subjects were covered.)

Will the United States be able to reform from the position we are now? Or will the resistance we now face cause us to crumble and require us build from scratch? Is that where we are headed?

Until we make a fundamental shift in our understanding that abundance does not always mean more stuff, that it can mean an abundance of space and time and freedom from the culture driven attitude that our worth is determined by our financial wealth and property, we are doomed to feel deprived with less.

We don’t have to live in rags and hovels but less is more. It does take self discipline and courage and time to resist impulse and find the emotional relief that comes with it. I am optimist that the current economy is an opportunity for some people to understand that less can be more.

An example would be where someone is unhappy with their job decides to buy some expensive toy, e.g. an off-road vehicle. This provides some respite from the problem at the cost of incurring debt limiting the ability to change their condition.

It is repressive because society wants its citizens to be compliant drones not challenging their social condition nor the the ways it is organized.

As I’m fond of saying, I didn’t marry into money; I married into money management. My wife and I enter all credit card receipts into our bank checkbook, so we always know how much we have to spend. It takes more time, but we’re never shocked when the credit card bills arrive.

Seems to me that too much self-control might get in the face of going with your gut, following your instincts and being creative.