I sometimes feel we all show the mental alacrity of the governor of Illinois! Our economic woes could be solved by letting the consumer drive the market by their needs, not by their wants and the wants of corporations. My son is Director of computers for a pasta making company and their stock is way, way up! When the people are broke, they eat pasta! When the people are poor, they buy cheap things! Business here is fine in Walmart, Sears and Target. Colleges - same way. Time
has a good article on the plight of the small liberal arts college. At $38000 a year there aren't as many takers as there used to be and lots more demand for financial aid!
The moral for most Americans is clear - scale back, cut down, live simply! Duh! Where have I heard that one before? What was it Thoreau told us over 160 years ago? Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here - a woman I know who cleans houses said she wants to give her son everything she didn't get as a child - now here is a desire that is putting tremendous strains on that family. I asked her if she didn't feel that she would be raising him to expect too much in the way of material things - she said she thought he should expect a lot. "A lot" to some people means all the gadgets and goodies of an extravagant lifestyle. "A lot" for others means a rich loving family with other goals and aspirations rather than the accumulation of goods. Let us define 'the good life' more readily in our media and government programs. Let us make cars that will be good for the environment and develop advertising and media presentations that make that something the people desire. (I'm not sure we know what we want until someone tells us!)
If we continue to collect Hummers like flies on flypaper, we are dead as a human race. We decry the downfall of the daily newspaper, and yet it is we 'oldies' that still take the paper. If we don't support it it will die. After all this meandering around, we really don't know what is good for us. We wait until time and lack of concern turn the page of history, and then say, "OHHH, the sky is falling! Help! Help! What have THEY done to us???"
Yes, let's not make fun of the Illinois gov. He's no more stupid and self-centered, and lacking in solid goals than most Americans. This turndown has made a slight change in my thinking: I refuse to buy anything from China. We have cut way back on this spending orgy we call Christmas. I have put on the sweater and turned down the heat and I drive a '95 Previa and don't intend to change that at the present. This winter is a time I have set aside to go through the trash we have collected in 50 years of marriage and get it to people who can use it. It is a winter to tidy up our Ark to keep it from sinking in this tide of stupidity in which we find ourselves. Do you see my halo and my pulpit?? Yes, you're right - like Mary Poppins, I'm practically perfect in every way!! ;> )
