Americans need to start spending again to get us out of the economic recession. We must spend and consume. These are the words uttered by Obama’s economists; the same words spoken by the Bush Administration economists; the same message conveyed by every side during every economic slowdown over the past 50 years. It is the bankrupt idea that Americans need to start wasting what little money they have on useless junk that we do not need now and never have needed to begin with — junk to be paid for with money that we have earned or that we have borrowed from the credit merchants; at interest rates the Mafia would be envious of. As long as we spend and consume, everything will be alright, right?
Consumption has been shoved down our throats since the post WWII baby boom, in fact, my parents — baby boomers — were influenced by this idea that Americans have the inalienable right to consume and spend and work and spend some more. Coming of age during the Reagan Administration of the 1980s, I too was sold this bill of goods and I bought it: I wanted to eat at McDonald’s and buy the newest/latest/greatest toy/video game/Air Jordans, etc… This idea that we could buy ourselves into a higher class strata was furthered by easy availability of credit to everyone of every income level.
Read the rest of the article here: The Pigeon Post - Consume
