Economists across the ranks say the road out of recession is called Spend Street.  The more we consume, the more jobs there will be.  Daniel Gross of Slate writes “Americans are getting thrifty just when we should be spending more.”

Well this is what I have to say to that:

Forget it.

I’m saving my hard earned money while I can, big guys. Thrifty is not a four letter word to me. Spending carelessly right now would be akin to taking a drive across a desert not knowing if there will be fuel at the next gas station.

There’s a myriad of reasons why I’m spending less at the moment.  But really, they all boil down to one:

I’m scared !@#$less.

And when did it become un-American to buy products only when we need them, anyway? When did Christmas become “Super Stuff Day?”  When did my Uncle decide that he needed a TV in every room, including the bathrooms?

Whatever happened to saving for a rainy day?

Consumers have become runaway trains, the outgrowth of a culture of credit card mania, many of us spending money we haven’t yet earned to feed our stuff addiction.  We’ve become stuff junkies, and that, in turn, has made us dependent upon a continuously rising Gross Domestic Product - GDP - for survival.

Alas, a world of consumption for consumption’s sake can’t feed the gluttonous stock markets forever. We’ve created an economy based on credit card money - money on paper.

Credit card money isn’t real until you pay it back.

And you know what they say.  Payback’s a bi$!h.

Related Reading:

The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade

Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament

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