I have been having thoughts like this for quite a while now - so much of what most people do (myself included) for "work" doesn't really add a lot, not just to the economy but to life in general (other than allowing us to "pay the bills" and buy cool thing...).

I wonder if this has to do with the devaluing of the kind of work previous generations would have considered valuable? Doctors, nurses, teachers, builders, farmers, librarians (yes Danielle)... instead everyone is busting their guts to get into finance or forced to eek out a living doing something that adds little....having been forced to take out a student loan to get there (Certificate of Call Centre Operations?!)

I caught a promo for that stupid money nazi programme the other day where the subject actually wanted to become a full time ironman. Mmmm. So useful.Right up there with being a professional snowboarder.

Peter Gluckman had a point the other day when he bemoaned the fact that the finest minds of the last two decades have been (understandably) going into finance and not science. Slight simplification of what he said but that was the gist of it.

Finance pays off the student loan, has stellar career opportunities and fabulous salaries...as opposed to science, with poor salaries and opportunities and a fragmented science community all competing for ever smaller amounts of money.

Actually, I take that back about teachers. I don't believe they were ever really valued. Which is possibly part of our problem.

I identify with what Kyle says-and on top of that, knowing that I can stay in the same house, get to know the neighbours, the local shop owners, have my son attend the local school and be involved with that...I like that sense of community and belonging that can come with staying put.

Doesn't mean that you can only have that by owning a house, but the odds are you're renting you'll have to move on as a result of someone else's decision, at some point.