your perspective.
I agree that delayed gratification is a good discipline. In this culture, it is a discipline and not an easy option when the whole system is driven by inducements to buy what we don't really need or want, or can afford, NOW.
Yet, this is a debt-based economy. As you may know, income has been flat for a few decades and easy credit, (debt) was then offered to compensate for the lost purchasing power. In other words, we won't increase you pay, but we will extend you credit in order to profit from that discrepancy.
Desire and unrealistic expectations fuel this system because it plays with precision on our avoidance and attraction. People who work hard for low pay are offered "relief" via material objects and expendable services. We are mired in pay-for-play distractions and an endless pursuit of the next thing we don't really need to be happy.
So, delayed gratification, (or, even lower and more reasonable expectations) is may be a viable way to greater happiness, (internally) and personal prosperity, but if we all became adepts at that today, then our system would probably crash hard since it would not be conducive or functional in a world of "happy as clams".
When your reality sphere is plastered with persuasive, non-stop advertising in media, on billboards, in windows and even on clothes, achieving what you are noting could require something akin to waking-up from a dream, (or is that nightmare). That's a tall order, collectively. Yet, our lack of spending order may inspire more of us to take that path.
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