Sitting on a bench in quiet desperation

Lives of quiet desperation and debt

I came across this quote by Nigel Marsh in Adam Baker’s TEDx talk and I had to share the quote:

There are thousands and thousands of people out there leading lives of quiet, screaming desperation, where they work long, hard hours at jobs they hate to enable them to buy things they don’t need to impress people they don’t like.

Marsh also wrote a book titled “Fat, Forty, and Fired: One man’s frank, funny, and inspiring account of losing his job and finding his life” that, aside from the “fat” bit, seems like an appropriate read for me while I search for a new job or build another business.

You can find the full transcript of Marsh’s talk on the TED site and watch him speak here:

In Baker’s TEDx talk, he talks about freedom and the financial treadmills we buy into and run on for much of our lives. His video is worth watching too:

The things we do to ourselves …

Image credit: Mikael Kristenson

Comments

2 responses to “Lives of quiet desperation and debt

  1. Awethu.com avatar

    tag:twitter.com,2013:878124205426003968_favorited_by_805118659

    Awethu.com

    https://twitter.com/pauljacobson/status/878124205426003968#favorited-by-805118659

  2. nuclearpengy avatar

    Credit/debt can be a really powerful tool, if used wisely, and it can actually save someone money by enabling her/him to buy in bulk (for example, a 5KG bag of sugar instead of a 1KG) or take advantage of a promotion and buy a lot of a nonperishable and regularly used item (like toilet paper) when it is on sale, for a really good price; the challenge/risk is that so many people give in to the temptation to abuse credit, end up using it for luxuries and get trapped in a cycle of minimum payments.

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.