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Which is the ideal for a lifestyle


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#1 MedEvil

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Posted 22 February 2009 - 08:51 PM

While having a nice evening, the topic came up, how in different countries the ideal for a 'proper' lifestyle varies and how this ideal effects life in general in that country, even for those who do not subscribe to that lifestyle.

Though interesting, the discussion suffered from an all german point of view on other countries, which is mostly the point of view of someone just passing by and not really getting or seeing what lies beneath.

Would you care to lift my knowledge about other cultures to a new level? :poke:

:poke:

#2 Galapo

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Posted 22 February 2009 - 09:54 PM

Someone once wrote a book on Australian culture called The Land of the Long Weekend. Aussies live for their time off.

Probably at the top of the list of lifestyle ideals is to own ones own home (people who rent are viewed somewhat as second-class citizens). The tax system is even geared to this, as is electioneering. Having a backyard pool is desirable, as is being able to hold a good backyard barbecue.

But being of low income, my family does not own their own home (we rent), we do not have a pool or backyard, and, sadly, due to space limitations of our rental accommodation, we do not even have a barbecue. Needless to say, we do not fit the "ideal".

Regards,
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#3 ispy

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Posted 22 February 2009 - 10:04 PM

Hi MedEvil :poke: ,

Well as a member of the federal states of Europe are we talking about far flung countries or are we talking domestic cultures?

We are a small country Wales with a small parliament called the Welsh office which governs from Cardiff the capital of Wales. The welsh like to sing alot "thats probably why it rains all the time here", LOL Oh & of course before I forget play Rugby!

We are Celtic by heritage quite often at loggerheads with the English but get on well with the Scots and the Irish, fellow celts. Wales has a very green hilly landscape but most of the traditional Backbone Industries like the coal & steel work industries have all but evapourated. Most of the economy is service industry orientated!

That is just a snapshot what specific questions do you want to know for comparison? Maybe we could compile a lifestyle based on the best attributes from each country or cultural background?


All the best,

ispy :poke:

#4 MedEvil

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Posted 22 February 2009 - 11:39 PM

The point we were discussing most was Germanies fanatic bourgeoisie ideal!

The ideal is to have a own house and a own little shop or little companie (read craft enterprise here) or at least work the same job all your life.(Though there are no such jobs anymore! :poke: ) And to portrait always, i do ok in my business/profession.
Never ever portarait, i do veryveryvery well in my business or you've got a dozend or two - arrows in your back, before you finished painting the target on yourself! :poke:

If you should ever portrait any traits associated with aristocracy around here, hunting season is opened on you.
Those are mostly:
- having money and spending it on fun (The proper german description would be wasting it!)
- not going to work
- drawing attention to yourself (punks get away with it, because they also show that they are not doing well financialy, which gives them the status of something like clowns, i guess)

All companies do something in Germany, that would probably be the kiss of death in most other countries. No matter how good they're doing, they are always publicly complaining about how bad they are doing.
If one does just listen to the public statements, one would think they all go bankrupt within the next two weeks, while they make record winnings.

One thing that i always notice are women. :poke: Way more woman in Germany sport short or shorter haircuts, than in other countries. Also their cloth is less flashy on an everage workday.

I would round up Germanies ideal to be, a productive grey mouse with own mousehole which barely scrapes by.

#5 Brito

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Posted 23 February 2009 - 04:22 AM

While having a nice evening, the topic came up, how in different countries the ideal for a 'proper' lifestyle varies and how this ideal effects life in general in that country, even for those who do not subscribe to that lifestyle.

Some years ago I would dream about having a penthouse right on the middle of the city with a pool or outdoor jacuzzi, driving a nice (german) car and work really hard to have a respected career.

If you're younger, this would equate to owning a lot of expensive stuff in your pockets, getting label designer clothes and going out at night a lot.

Guess this would be an ideal lifestyle for a lot of people of my generation.

--------------------------

Nowadays I guess that living here in the azores has changed my own perspective on life quality. I've learned to enjoy intensely the things that are available in the present.

One day I just realized that it was possible for me to work and have fun while doing it with style.

I'm just crazy about spending hours on seaside coffee houses while working on something, listen music while I walk to somewhere or just be nice and invite the next door neighbors for a nice meal at our house. I could play for hours with my young kid or have a lot of fun talking with other people, what's important for me is the moment and quality.

Also spend a bit too much on dinners, clothing, gadgets and night events, guess it's better than be closed all week long going from work to home and vice-versa. But one should also note that this helps you to be in good shape at all levels and even feel much younger.. :poke:

For me, lifestyle is all about having fun and smile! :poke:

#6 MedEvil

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Posted 23 February 2009 - 10:49 AM

Nuno, the question was not about your personal preferred lifestyle. Those vary widely within a country.
But what societies ideal for a lifestyle is in your country.

For instance, it's possible in some places in this world, though not in any of the leading industrial nations, to be poor and yet be well respected. In some cases even to have a general higher social status than a rich person.

:poke:

#7 was_jaclaz

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Posted 23 February 2009 - 12:33 PM

The ideal for a lifestyle (not the actual ideal, but what lots of people think :poke:) comes from advertisement, at least here in Italy.

These spots are emblematic:

http://www.torinoint...ndato-1984.html


Beautiful homes, beatiful people, beautiful cars, beautiful dresses, beautiful women, lots of money, parties, LUXURY.

Typically a free-lance/professional kind of job (where you don't actually need to go to work), a beatiful wife, success, friends, "freezed" between 35 and 40, and however forever-young looking.

The new spot:
http://www.menstyle..../glen-grant.asp

has some more irony but also a more defined "sexual" character, passing from the "married succesful" to the "single successful".....

Another classic (strangely enough) are BMW's spots:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5jktxRDMII

Text goes like this:

Are you always reachable?
Do you always know where you are going?
Do you have total control of your life?
BUT
Can you still lose yourself?


They can be "sex" alluring:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7IIxyX2hMY&NR=1

Or more "family oriented":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGtMvHCBQBI
Text goes like this:

The good thing about living in the country....
...is that the road to work is long and full of curves


but the message is the same, and people is generally stupid enough to think that what is in spots is actually life....
... and since most cannot have that, we see very few smiles around...
... people thinks that they are unfortunate or that life is sad because they cannot have that....

jaclaz

#8 MedEvil

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Posted 23 February 2009 - 02:26 PM

Beautiful homes, beatiful people, beautiful cars, beautiful dresses, beautiful women, lots of money, parties, LUXURY.

So if someone has this lifestyle, do other people say, hey good for you or do they try to shoot them down.
Do people prefer doing business with people like that or do they try to avoid them?

I ask because we have the same kind of advertisement here too and everywhere else i guess. (basicly: You're not good enough without our product.)
But if you really have all that, all you have acomplished is to make 80 million enemies. :poke:
You break some rule of society, imo.

Another point. When you're in the US and tell people you're born rich that's one thing, but saying that you were born poor and made it on you own. Get's you alot more respect and admiration.
In Germany, being born rich is like an excuse, it's not your fault, so you don't get as much fire than a person which actually became rich.

:poke:

#9 MedEvil

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Posted 23 February 2009 - 02:42 PM

PS: When i think about those comercials. They all fit the german ideal too. Be sucessful. But non actually portrait being rich. Unless of course a german car has a different status then here in Germany.

:poke:

#10 Brito

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Posted 23 February 2009 - 06:52 PM

Nuno, the question was not about your personal preferred lifestyle. Those vary widely within a country.
But what societies ideal for a lifestyle is in your country.

Yep, that's the reason why the first six lines of my previous reply summarize how it is idealized around here, thought I personally don't think that way nowadays.

If you're happy with your own life, people will always say you're too lucky regardless having money or not.

:poke:

#11 MedEvil

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Posted 23 February 2009 - 07:39 PM

Guess this would be an ideal lifestyle for a lot of people of my generation.

Apearantly, my english is not good enough to get my question across, as noone has yet hit the mark. :cheers:

Last try! (If the following makes no sense to you, just forget it. :cheers:)
- I do not ask, how your personal ideal lifestyle is.
- I do not ask, how the ideal lifestyle of your generation is.
- I ask, how the ideal lifestyle of your society is.

Example:
- My personal lifestyle is to be a couple without being married.
- The prefered lifestyle of my generation was, maybe even is, to be a couple without being married.
- Homosexual marriages are now possible in Germany.

Despite all the above. Heterosexual married couples are the ideal in german society.

Got it? Think big! :cheers:

:cheers:

#12 was_jaclaz

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Posted 23 February 2009 - 08:05 PM

@Medevil

Feelings (generally speaking) are mixed, very few people can actually have that lifestyle, all the others do their best to fake it.

I guess the most common sentiment is envy, mitigated by (false) morality.

A common approach is:
Person 1: You see that guy over there, he has a ....<name of a car> and a <choose flat/apartment/villa> ... in <name a known expensive> place.
Person 2: Really, I wonder how he managed to get that, he must be into <choose drug/mafia/corruption/or other similar item connected with the "dark side">.

Very few people realize that, with the, all in all very small in number, exception of actual criminals, football players, TV stars and politicians, life is just (more or less :cheers:), and that money is earned by working long hours, using one's brain, risking, and usually it is deserved as compensation for the "other" things one misses, like a family life, some relax, sleeping all the hours needed, etc., etc.

The approach to the "born rich" is:
Ha, he is lucky, if it wasn't for his <father/granfather/greatgrandfather/other relative> (who was into <choose drug/mafia/corruption/or other similar item connected with the "dark side">) he would be asking for charity at the street corner, he is a total moron.

The approach to self-made man is basically:
Ha, he cannot possibly have done all that honestly.


To answer your other question, yes, German cars, not Volkswagen :cheers: but Mercedes, BMW and Audi have a somewhat more "luxury status" than other brands.

Basically because:
1) they are usually more expensive :cheers:
2) they are usually "better" :cheers: (as compared to FIAT)

Only exception is maybe the Golf GTI that has been for now more than twentyfive years a "status" for youngsters.

Of course Toyota's are actually better, but in Italy mostly minicars are sold with that brand, and Lexus are too high priced to enter the "contest".

If your question about lifestyle is about sexual relationships, the trend is:
- be a couple without marrying
- after a fair amount of years, marry nonetheless :cheers:
- divorce soon after :cheers:

We don't care much about homosexuals, there are civil laws that grant partners of "established" homosexual or heterosexual couples some of the same rights a married couple has, we don't care about marriage, we don't care about divorce.

Basically the idea is that everyone is free to do whatever he/she wishes as long as he/she don't bother "me", it's at the same time a very "liberal" and very "selfish" society.

I would guess that Germans tend to sport (at least the "establishment") a somewhat more strict "morality", cannot say how much truly felt, as, judging from the way they behave abroad, I think that a great part of it is due to "obedience to the classic" (no mattter if actual Law or "morality").

At least for the time I lived in Germany, in Berlin - which I am told is somewhat NOT like Germany - and remember I was there in 1994/1995 when still the wall fall was recent, and the impact of easterners was high on society, I noticed a difference with Italy.

There was a greater gap between the new generation of youths and the "establishment", in Italy parents were more "large minded" and sons were less "provocative/disrupting".


jaclaz

#13 billonious

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Posted 23 February 2009 - 10:18 PM

well, after reading some posts, I conclude that things are alike in some degree in western world . Things are changing here, (exept for human's stupidity), every decade is something completely different.

Generally, from 1995 to yesterday, a desirable way of life was being a successful employee of more than 2.500 euros (or the equivalent in drachmas), , or the founder of a small company, handling with stocks in parallel. You could drive a german car/suv of 30.000 euros at least (bmw 4.20), a cheap porsche boxter or an expensive japaneze sportcar (mazda rx8, mitsubisi evo, subaru impreza).
You may have two/three houses, one for your family, and the rest rented until your children growup and get them.
Traveling abroad twice a year, making holidays in mykonos (the most expensive inland here ) spending 2.000 euros in a week, with a woman spending her time in gym studios (often cheating you with young guys) & a young girlfriend to uplift your ego and cheat your own wife in turn. You may have a daughter, for whom you don' even know where she is sleeping but you are so proud of her because she is 1.90 high, working in a tv channer with a high salary, and sleeping with her boss planning her career. My sweet girl. You may also have a boy who MUST be the best -the first- classmate, sportman, have slept with 30 woman until his 30's and he is to take on your company.
On christmass & easter, you visit your small (forgotten by gods) village (now only chicken and goats live in), in which you born but you insist to pretend to be a athenean city slicker .

This year, under this "mass media promoted" economic crisis, I see that the previous model is going to be remains of the past. I really don't care. My own view of lifestyle is somehow strange. I don't aim to make family or children for the next thirsty years ( i am 31 right now), I can stand with a low salary as I live in the countryside where the cost of living is cheep. I will stay with my girlfriend util she get bored of me. If I run out of job or money, I will cultivate my farms and produce my food (I am agriculturalist at least) and live as an anarchist farmer with no need of money , cell phones, cars, petrol, taxes, politicians, banks, stress, gnaring customers and mad bosses. I can get rid of the audi my company has given me, and drive my own kia (very spartan in benzin).




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