I would rather see all shops close on Sundays.
I agree completely. The breathing spaces in life are disappearing fast, and will soon be gone altogether. I can understand why many don't care, or even disagree completely. But I also think that the old cliche about not knowing what you've lost till it's gone is true.
Society has changed so much over the last 20 years. Most young people have no ideas what's been lost because they don't know any different. And most older people don't care because they have swallowed the marketing bait that freedom is about shopping rather than living.
That's how the credit crisis which got us and others western nations into such a huge, and still unfolding mess was created... society as a whole became addicted to spending NOW. Planning became unnecessary, and discipline went out of the window.
This may sound way too serious when someone just wants to buy a can of beans at 11pm on a Saturday evening. But cultures change one apparently trivial decision at a time, and nobody really looks ahead to where it all ends. Which is why we have major crises every few decades as new generations forgets the lessons of the past.
The potentially "funny" thing about the current financial crisis is that it may put 24/7 culture into reverse, because most night retail operations are loss leaders. Many stores would love an excuse to cut back their overheads, especially at the moment when trading conditions are very tough.
The same goes for home shopping. That loses even more money. So as economic conditions get tougher over the next few years we may see some changes which look like a step backwards but which are actually progress as attitudes and expectations are rebalanced towards the global mean... which is where we're heading as wealth moves away from the overdeveloped entitlement cultures in the west, towards the underdeveloped east & south.
Mmm... I think that's more than enough from me on such an apparently trivial subject. I think I'll go relax by researching a Freesat recorder on Amazon.
