We don't save anymore, but we are told to go out and buy things. We can't borrow like we used to and since we don't have savings, how can we buy anything anyway?
We are drowning our world with our clutter (it is worth a trip to the garbage dump just to see the reality of this), but we are told that if we stop accumulating (i.e. being consumers) many people will be destitute.
What a dilemma.
Maybe the answer is finding a different way for the economy to survive. Its crazy to depend so much on people buying things. With all our intelligence, and ability to invent i-phones and other technologically advanced gadgets, you would think we could find a better way.
New York Times Letter to the Editor - on the economy
To the Editor:
We consumers are getting contradictory messages about spending. On the one hand, we are told that our overconsumption is polluting and cluttering up the earth with garbage, using up resources and showing insensitivity to all the needy people in the world. On the other hand, we are told that until we start buying more goods and services, the economy will be in the dumps and we will leave many of our fellow citizens jobless, homeless and hungry.
Something is wrong with that picture. I personally don’t feel like buying much of anything, and my life is a lot less cluttered.
Ina Aronow
New Rochelle, N.Y., Dec.
24, 2008
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