Optimism

[sierra_nevada]

I firmly believe that everyone on earth is working every day to improve their lot in life, within the resources they have, and under the rules they live under. Ergo, there is a huge bias toward progress.

Of course, resources are not evenly distributed, and lots of places have rather than less than ideal rules.

Comments

[unixronin]

"Progress", unfortunately, is poorly defined.

[r_wolfcastle]

Unfortunately, some whose lot in life is already extremely improved continue to seek yet more improvement at the expense of tens millions of others. Perhaps this falls under your "less than ideal rules" stipulation, but I think that will be cold comfort when the credit-card-backed securities collapse follows closely on the heels of the mortgage-backed securities debacle.

Pessimism R Us this morning. Sorry. I'm sure I'll be more positive in 71 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 55 seconds.

[sierra_nevada]

Happy is the man who has savings right now, instead of debt.

As a matter of principle, one should never borrow money, unless one is going to make more with that money than it costs to borrow it. Buying depreciating assets with borrowed money is Bad.