”Progress or satisfaction, that's the anthropological dilemma of the
human condition. You can't have both. People are riding a dangerous animal.
There seem to be two ways to reduce the discrepancy between desire and
satisfaction, demand and supply. One can expand the supply of goods and the
purchasing power needed to acquire them. That's the hedonistic program, which
we have chosen since the days of the Greeks and Romans, but which threatens to
fall apart in the debt crisis. The monetization of our society has strengthened
the illusion that all the things we desire are within our reach.”
Czech economist Tomas Sedlacek
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,822981,00.html
