Good comments David F (on page 1). I agree 100%.

Perhaps the author never heard about acquiring wisdom with age.

VK3AUU,

That's rubbish. People who are old now didn't have the consumer goods of today to spend money on, nor did they have the superannuation of today, or the high wages of the greedy buggers of today. They had enough to live on, and very little if anything to save. Families also usually relied on a single income as well. The galahs both working now and expecting
other people to pay to look after their kids wouldn't last 5 minutes in those days. There's no saving, and Australia has the highest family debt in the world.

Dear David,

<<Waste one's precious life in pursuit of an imaginary entity?>>

Waste one's precious life in pursuit of temporary comfort and pleasure, nothing of it will remain or will even be remembered?

(P.S. I wrote "God", not "entity": since God is not an entity, the imagination is all yours)

---

Dear Plerdsus,

<<DON'T SPEND!!>>

Yes, but don't stop at that - make a point of boycotting those who advertise, meaning that instead of paying for a good product or service, part of your money would go towards financing their advertising campaign.

While it's not feasible and cannot be morally justified to make advertising a criminal offence, in the least it should not be allowed as a taxable deduction. It would also be nice if all products are marked: "XX% of the price you pay are for advertising".

Dear Yuyutsu,

I know you wrote God. God is not the only imaginary entity. It is not my imagination that created God. Other people's imagination created God. It is a waste of one's precious life to pursue God or any other imaginary entity. Better?

Eventually nothing will be remembered. If one does not pursue sensual and/or intellectual pleasures one will miss out on them. There will not be pie-in-the-sky by and by. Carpe diem.

From The Garden of Proserpine:

Though one were strong as seven,
He too with death shall dwell,
Nor wake with wings in heaven,
Nor weep for pains in hell;
Though one were fair as roses,
His beauty clouds and closes;
And well though love reposes,
In the end it is not well.

Death is the end. One is no more. That's all, folks.

Plerdus makes the point that elderly generation like myself are not easily sucked in by advertising. The women I know all look very presentable within their means without going over the top 'glamorous'.
The notable indulgence is in travel, mostly O/S, but not exclusively. Kids have left home or can look after themselves. The travel market has adjusted accordingly to our needs and there is probably further to go.

Dear David,

<<It is not my imagination that created God.>>

True, but it is your (and other people's also) imagination which dressed God as an entity.

<<Other people's imagination created God.>>

How could they when God is not created?

<<It is a waste of one's precious life to pursue God or any other imaginary entity. Better?>>

I tend to agree that it is a waste of one's precious life to pursue entities, real or imagined, but whence has this issue of entities arisen? I only wrote "God" and you are the one who repeatedly reverts to entities.

<<If one does not pursue sensual and/or intellectual pleasures one will miss out on them.>>

Well I believe otherwise, that if one deserve pleasures, then they will eventually have them whether they like it or not, even without pursuing them (not that it should matter to one who no longer pursues pleasures).

<<Death is the end.>>

Then what have you to lose?

Look at it statistically: if there is even an infinitesimal chance (1 > e > 0) of eternal life after death which can be affected by our choices in this life, then the statistical expectation of what you can get by sacrificing pleasure in order to invest in the long-term future is:

e * bliss * infinity - (1-e) * pleasure * 100-years = infinity

Now if something happened once, then the chances of it happening again are usually positive. You have once, upon or around the time of your birth, associated your consciousness with a body, so why should it not be probable to happen again?