We watched “Time Enough at Last” during dinner last night. 
As for me? I checked almost everything. I have all but one of the things I want, I just need more time to play with them.
After watching my mom suffer a stroke during Christmas, I’m more inclined to list “health” and “time” as the main things on my list.
Much.
I have some health issues which require surgery which I have to postpone indefinitely.
I have a job I like. Fairly secure financially, so long as I can keep working. If I have to give up work, I’m screwed.
I’d like a couple of friends but making friends beyond a certain age is almost impossible.
Not in the least. No car, no job, no kids, no home of my own.
Almost everything - still need to finish a geocomputing degree I’m in the 4th year of correspondence uni for, there are still 5 months until my next child is born, and I want to visit Venice again. Otherwise, I’m good.
I have much of what I want - a wonderful man, pretty close to debt-free (the only debts we take on we pay pretty quickly), two cars, etc.
I would prefer a better career and maybe a house, but I can’t afford a mortgage right now and certainly don’t want to pay all the associated costs of home ownership. (Taxes anyone?)
I am saving for a new car so there’s that.
I have pretty much as much as I want in terms of material goods. But I’d prefer not to be required to work in order to maintain my lifestyle.
No. I want everything that I have.
I have more than enough physical things, but I still have plenty of room to grow intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and healthwise.
“I gave you everything that you ever wanted. It wasn’t what you wanted…”
-U2, So Cruel
I want my own interplanetary space program, and have made very little progress in that direction, so in that sense I have very little of what I want. I also want immortality, and am pretty sure I don’t have that either.
Besides that, I have pretty much everything.
Sometimes I hear people say “Oh, those billionaires. Why do they keep earning money when they can buy anything they want already?” Whereas I’m thinking “A few tens of billions of dollars is a good start but really isn’t enough to create a proper Mars colony, or even an asteroid mining operation.”
I used to have some stuff that I willingly gave up for what I have now, so I know that what I have now is more important to me than that stuff was. But I’m looking forward to getting a new career and doing some things with that I wanted to do for a dozen years.
Hell no! I want a Fendi bag, Jimmy Choos that are custom-made to fit my double wide feet, a private island with an airstrip and a plane to land on it, and a hundred million dollars in the bank. Well, a hundred million might not be enough to get a new plane every year, let’s call it two hundred.
I am, however, pretty content with my current lot in life. And I’ll chose contentment over stuff any day. Well, any sane day.
Sadly, no. I haven’t read that book that I can discuss with a friend in front of a fire.
I haven’t built a house (or dug a well) for Humanity or written the lyics (yet) for a song that will ring in the halls later on.
But, I read. And cheer on those who tear down worn walls and rebuild dreams.
And I have so much stuff in my house, inherited and bought while I was going to “redo” it, that I can tell my kids, “Go on and look, and take what you need,” like it’s a Blue Light special at K-mart.
Charity begins at home. I do wish, tho, that I could branch out.
Have you tried “e’s” at a skateboard store? They’re the only brand of shoes that my younger son can wear. His feet are shaped like a shoe box; long and double wide. And those fit him comfortably.
You’re welcome.
I wish I had an HDTV
I have more than I deserve, and the only things I still want are to be able to continue to provide for my family in the event my fortunes (such as they are) take an unexpected downturn or I am hit by a bus, or something. So to that end, a couple million in the bank would be nice (to cover college educations, pay off the mortgage, and still allow them to live a comfortable lifestyle), but otherwise I have everything I want.
An amazing wife, two terrific kids, we have our health, a nice house in a great neighborhood, a great job, friends, family… no real complaints.
I wonder how these answers correlate with how happy people would rate themselves and how stable the ratings would be across each person’s life cycle.
I’m guessing that, once basic needs are assured, the people who are ranking themselves as having only “some of” what they want or less will stay there no matter how much more stuff they get, and that those who are saying that they have “much” or “more” of what they want said close to the same thing when they had much much less than they have now.
A friend of mine calls it his power window theory. His first car had roll down windows and he was thrilled. When power windows came out he thought it was a goofy idea. Now of course every car he’s had since has power windows and he’d feel deprived he had a car without them.
I think I’d have answered the same “almost everything” back when I had very very little stuff as I do now with many more toys. Really, once you are well fed, have a reliable roof over your head, something to do with your life that you enjoy and that you feel is important, are healthy, and are loved by people who you love, everything else is gravy at most. (As used to our own gravy as we each get.)