Yesterday I read an article, Death of the ‘McMansion’: Era of Huge Homes Is Over. Simultaneously we were discussing the the PC movement which most believe has gone too far at this point.
On the over-sized houses, it’s a no brainer. As salaries shrink and costs rise, people realize they don’t want to heat, cool, furnish and maintain more space than they need, so they’re scaling back.
As for the PC movement, more and more people are seeing the reactions to certain terms as “overreactions” and adjustments are being made.
The trend in this direction is VAST. We’ve just gone too far on every front you can think of. Spending for example and what about sexual offenders?
As society we became keen to make lists of sexual offenders and the lists became so large as to be worthless. For example, if a 19 year old having sex with a consensual 17 year old can be on a list like this, the whole list is compromised.
It should be that seeing a name on a list like that, mean something but all it really means is “maybe it means something” which actually has something opposite the desired affect. The idea was to make this info accessible so we could keep ourselves and our children safe but it’s done no good at all. The *real* criminals don’t report their *real* addresses or they do and then they move so when you check a list like that, you’d be lucky if even half the names and addresses on the list are actually bonafide offenders, the rest innocent victims who rented or purchased the wrong house or apartment. With a failure rate like that, why even look at the list?
We’d be much better off with a shorter list we could rely on even if a perp slipped through the net here or there. Pluto in Sagittarius cast a large net on sex offenders. Pluto in Capricorn will pare it down.
The number of people receiving benefits from social programs has also swelled and I think we will see these lists pared down as well.
Five years ago, pretty much anyone could get a loan. Obviously we are seeing a retraction on this front as well.
You get the idea. If it is out-sized it is going to be truncated or pared back to a level that can be sustained.
What do you see being scaled back in your life and the lives around you?
My grocery purchases! I am flabbergasted each and every time I go into a supermarket. Food prices are at a level I’ve never seen in my lifetime. Also cutting back on passive shopping like walking into a drugstore and buying toiletries and cosmetics just because.
I have always shopped at thrift stores so that will never change but I have a thrift store across the street from my house (I know. How awesome is that?) and at lunchtime the cars are double-parked.
I’m using my clothesline instead of drying my clothes in the dryer. Doing my own home repairs where possible rather than hiring someone.
Togi – that is true. Shopping used to be a hobby.
Hi Elsa,
Most definitely. I really never bought into the Spa Breaks and girl’s weekends away drinking champagne but I know lots and lots of people who did – now, there most deinfitely is a scaling back on that front.
Me – I miss my two holidays per year, usually spent pottering around some European city. I never bought much there or stayed in luxury, but I enjoyed the art and culture. Now, no more of that for the forseeable future but I am grateful for the many places I have been.
No more luxury had soaps which was a favourite luxury of mine, I buy second hand books instead of new, no more cd’s (thanks to almost all music being available to download on the internet for almost nothing), and my biggest pare down has been eating out with friends three maybe four times a week (never anywhere very expensive), we just don’t have the income now due to job losses and salary downgrades and I suppose, to a large extent, fear.
My biggest luxury these days is buying a coffee and danish for breakfast at my local deli stop on Saturday and Sundays – and only one newspaper per week instead of the usual daily tome.
It’s good though, I srt of like being frugal and careful these days. It makes me feel like I am achieving something worthwhile, if that makes any sense.
Best to you
DeeC
hey, maybe I’ll get thin again…
Well, I’ve already adapted “Lean to the bone” approaches to my personal consumption habits and really, as a Cap moon, I tend to prefer it that way. It’s not about deprivation to me; I just like to keep everything geared very precisely to what I actually need. That’s where I’m personally the most comfortable. And having had Saturn and Uranus dancing through my 2nd/8th house axis, any lessons I still needed to learn on this were fully underscored, LOL!
About the PC stuff ; I think with Pluto in Sag – a sign known for its bluntness/blurting/lack of verbal editing – it made sense for the PC guard to have been working in overdrive. Personally, I have no issues at all with an emphasis on political correctness and I do believe it’s exactly because I have mercury in Capricorn (conjunct my moon, too.) The LAST thing a Cap would want to have happen would be to lose an opportunity, especially a business opportunity, over an ill-perceived remark! I think “restraint” will be the mode with Pluto Cap and things will likely stay more organically PC (and woe upon those Cappies – hi Tiger, Mel, Dr. Laura – who don’t heed restraint’s clarion call, LOL!)
I live in a county in Georgia that was at one time during the 80’s and maybe into the early ninety’s the fastest growing county in the nation. The building boom really only stopped here in the last few years. There was so much money here for a while and so very many country clubs full of mcmansions. I’m glad that overblown growth has scaled back. It was/is obscene.
I was just talking to someone last night when I said, “You know I have lost so much these last 2 years and the funny part is I have felt like I have so much more on the inside with so little on the outside” Afterwards I thought yes it is like pruning an apple tree. Did you know the best time to prune an apple in these parts is during Capricorn. Pruning and clearing the overgrowth, hauling away the debris because if we clean this up just right, the new growth of spring will be amazing. Now to be patient and to stop looking if anything has sprouted. Silly girl RElax during this time, all good things in all due time.
I’ve always lived rather on the lean side, so no paring down required for me.
The only scaling down I’m considering at this point is in terms of goals, desires, and such.
I’ve always lived very frugally, but used to spend any spare cash on my social life. Now I’m hardly going out at all. That’s partly because my whole life is undergoing a sea-change though – what I’m looking for is no longer ‘out there’ for the moment; it’s ‘in here’.
I’ll rejoice at the scaling back of PC – I really hate it
Echoing BP’s sentiment re: the scaling back of PC!
Thank god. Those big houses are an eyesore and often built on perfectly good farmland, making it a double outrage.
Hey!! It’s Strawberry Fields! ^^^
I have so much Saturn, I don’t know what else I can cut out 🙂 Have you ever noticed the names of these kinds of subdivisions? Whispering Woods…Rolling Meadows…etc etc. ZZZZZzzzzz
Q: What do you see being scaled back in your life and the lives around you?
A: Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
And, I don’t look at who the government knows to be crinminals as most criminals have hardly ever been caught for a thing. If someone wants to know how to protect their kids from predators, they should learn about how to spot potential predators themselves.
While I haven’t observed much of anything scale back yet… I did see the shift in media. Notice the new family themed and/or targeting horror movie trend? That’s Capricorn.
Oh, yeah… Some things that have scaled back!
Another media shift was that they cracked down on obscene black music being pop. Now, the amount of vulgarity is more how it normally was before it was building up as mega-heavy toward the end of Pluto in Sag. And, it was the black community that demanded it be gotten back under control, so props to them.
And, highly Sag America’s strength as a power is falling, allowing others to climb.
I’ve read that small banks were put out of business by the recession. And, those big banks have had their trust from our society damaged.
There are probably others I can’t think of…
I could be wrong on this one, but… I think the real estate trend died down, too.
People who were buying houses to “flip” them or whatever… Fix them up, all that… Most of them I think went broke, and the houses they were fixing became foreclosures. I laughed at those idiots with quite a due laughter. Something like that being a trend was just plain stupid. People have to have the money for moves for people in that profession to do well, and people were going broke while this trend decided to happen. It was doomed to destroy those who jumped on the bandwagon.
Though, it still looks like it might be common for would-be housewives to be in basic realestate. That or Date Night was a little late to use that.
maureen. yeah one can almost see the tomb stones
decided to do tree work ourselves and bought a 10ft. selfsupporting ladder, yesterday we trimmed a apple limb and brought down a service wire. Today it was wire in the walnuts, nothing bad happened except exhaustion.
There’s a guy who built infront of a country-club of 1/2 mil.$ mcmansions. during hunting season a sign reads “Jeff’s Deer cuting.” not just the sign but carcass and barrels of offal.
Interesting to read this all these years later. It’s happening but it’s sure been slow! 🙂