Perhaps I’m just imagining things, but it appears to me that over the last few years, it has become a new patriotic duty for every American to spend beyond their means. It’s for the good of the country you know.
The whole “Christmas is a time of giving” (and you better give good stuff you chiseler!), may be having a large influence on my opinions on this matter, but is it just me? I heard a radio announcer talking about some consumer spending economic numbers and he referred to the issue as folks “doing their part for the economy”. This was a bit tongue in cheek, but I remember that President Bush’s admonition to go shopping after 9/11 was perfectly credulous.
I am told repeatedly that our economy is not a zero sum game, but shouldn’t we act a bit more as if it is? Is it reasonable to spend ourselves (as a nation) into penury to keep the economy growing? This seems so stupid. I just hope I can get my student loans paid off before the bottom drops out of this system.
Anyway, I’m reminded of a short story I read more than a decade ago in which a young couple are mired in a duty to consume. In this story every person is required to consume massive amounts of resources to ensure that the economy continues on its merry course. Only after certain quotas have been met can you cut back and move into a little cottage and live the simple life. Only the old are able to live in such ‘luxury’ and the young hero of the story is envious of their spartan lifestyle. If you ever come across the story, I won’t spoil it, but I can say that such a situation is not, in concept, too far from what we are living today.
What, do we need another Depression to wise up people? Damn.
Consumerism has been a patriotic duty for a long time in America. The Cold war was full of rhetoric about how consumer goods were symbols of American freedom, and spending money was a patriotic endeavor that would keep the commies in their place by showing them how great the capitalist system was. Nixon’s trip to Russia in 1959 was a key example, as he showed Brezhnev around the American National Exhibition in Moscow, extolling the virtues of American consumer products.
Yes, we must all spend more to improve the economy, but don’t forget to keep your credit card debt low and save for retirement. So many mixed messages.
If you get the chance, pick up and read or reread Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. It’s rather insightful on the whole idea of consumerism and why we keep having it pushed on us.
Yes, in the context of, “Go out and shop, people. You (probably) won’t die at the hands of terrorists if you do.” Forgotten already the grim mood around the country in the months following 9/11?
But it isn’t just you who believes that nefarious forces are trying to make Consumerism is a patriotic duty. It’s a fairly typical lefty stance. (If you spend money, you are playing into the hands of THE MAN! :eek: )
You are aware that FDR tried to make Thanksgiving the third Thursday in November for the express purpose of adding a week to the silly season, don’t you? He would do anything to attempt to stimulate the economy.
Bush is simply taking a page out of his book by advocating consumerism and debt, because if it gets the economy to take off the debt load won’t be nearly as substantial since income and productivity will increase out of necessity.
Yes Dad, I do remember the grim mood in the months following 9/11. I also remember that President Bush did put a bit more emphasis on the shopping part than was strictly necessary. In the context of “go on, get back to your lives” the admonition to go shopping is perfectly wonderful. Though if memory serves, the context was more along the lines of “spend money so the economy doesn’t tank”. Still useful, but with a decidedly weird connotation.
And if I had said that nefarious forces (maybe the forces are good, heh?) were trying to make consumerism a patriotic duty, I might actually take your point on the typical lefty stance. But I didn’t so I won’t.
As mhendo pointed out, this may have been fairly standard cold war rhetoric. But, as I am only 35 and only vaguely remember hiding under my desk for fear of nuclear bombs, the consumeristic rhetoric kind of passed me by.
Perhaps it is my familial aversion to debt. Or the fact that my wife and I have student loans that exceed what we own on our modest home. Or the fact that I listened to one too many stories from the old crones at family get togethers that start with the phrase "years ago . . . " Ideology aside, it seems asinine to base an economic system on the assumption of continuous growth. Growth in and of itself is good, but basing the whole thing on the idea that it will ALWAYS grow? No wonder the greatest generation scorns their progeny, the baby boomers.
Anyway, I’ve been noticing an increased emphasis on the idea of continuous consumption in the economy and it seems idiotic. Perhaps it has been this way all along, but I’m definitely thinking it seems to be growing a bit stronger.
Just remember kids, buy Gramma that DVD player or the terrorists will win.
Heh. Yeah. I’ve got $156.24 in there. The minimum balance is $150.00. I’m not certain what happens if I fall below that, so, until I get my next paycheck (not for a month), I have six bucks to spend.
Note: I am, however, going to school (for now) on my parent’s dime - I’m responsible, eventually, for all student loans, and I’m going to pick up at least half the tuition by junior year, but that’s my own agreement with myself. They pay for tuition, room and board, and books. Anything else I want, however, at all, is up to me. But I freely acknowledge that everything else is a luxury item that I don’t need, and I’m lucky we can afford the school I’m at.
