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Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Marginal Propensity to Consume
That fancy subject was just to catch your eye, but it does have me and a whole lot of other folks around the world thinking lately about both personal economics and the conditions of our country. Heck, its tough to watch television or listen to the radio without some mention of our economy. One of my favorite cohorts at the YMCA today said to me presumably randomly while catching his breath outside of the sauna, “don’t suppose many folks will be spending much at Christmas this year. They gonna be worried about puttin’ food on the table.” We went on to discuss the benefits of layaway for a lot of families and how it looks like Wal-Mart will be bringing the service back for 2008. So beyond the politics of it all, I’ve been tracing in my mind back to when all this consumption began. I mean, have you ever noticed that the majority of our “wants” become either worthless within weeks of ownership or slowly begin to own us..i.e. our mortgages. I know I’m not saying anything monumental here. Its been said a million times before…but when did this start? Are we hard-wired to want to consume and not just appreciate or is it mainly cultural? Did it start when we looked at the Adirondacks, Mississippi River or Grand Canyon and something inside our little immigrant hearts said “I need it!” ..forget about the millions of Indians who happened to be standing in the way of me and my want? Is there always a negative byproduct to our massive consumption? Maybe it all started with Eve and that apple..but, frankly I think she catches too much of the blame of most things already. I'd simply like to make a call to everyone to look at that new sweater at the store and let it warm your desires, but then let it warm you that you have a very similar one in your closet. Picture yourself in that new mini cooper zooming around the narrow streets of Europe and then praise God that your old clunker is still running and getting you to and from work. Lets simply appreciate without the need to consume.
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3 comments:
It's good to know you haven't changed. :) The khakis and button down Joel would offer up the point of not just consumption, but consumption on borrowed money. That to me is the biggest issue. Money the past 5 years was one of the cheapest things to get and now those bills are due and the assets purchased are worth much less. If we do head toward a new depression I hope the silver lining is that it teaches us all to be more frugal and realistic with our money. Something hapened in the 30's to make our grandparents cling tightly to a lifestyle of saving and maximizing even today. I'm not saving used ziplock baggies yet, but who knows? The flip side is that my income depends on not only continued consumption, but increased consumption over the last year. How do we acheive responsible consumption?
good talking to you today. I think our generation and really the generation just after us are going to have an even more difficult time with the "keeping up with the joneses" syndrome as we are all so connected via facebook and photos etc. By the way..were you calling me cheap? :)
Not cheap...although are you still cheap? I was more referring to your bleeding heart artist approach to life. :) I just want to keep up with the McCutchans.
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