It's the Economy, Stupid!

With all the talk of economic woes I wonder if the negative rhetoric is doing any good. A friend of mine mentioned that the buzz word “recession” is one of the direct causes of the mayhem. Perhaps our pessimism about it all is scaring us into a depression. Instead of focusing on the negatives that we are dealing with at the moment, maybe we should assess what got us here. Enter, consumerism.
I had the greatest conversation this weekend about consumerism with someone whose political views often differ from mine. However, when the economy was brought up we had the same thoughts. To start off, oftentimes the woes we are facing are caused by we the consumers. Instead of buying the car that is within our means we take out extravagant loans and rack up credit card debt to purchase the vehicle that everyone will envy. Instead of bringing our lunch to work we eat out every day, and that adds up. We get highlights put in our hair, rims on our cars and buy an absurd amount of name brand accessories to mask our insecurities. We have learned false truths that material possessions represent who we are instead of the qualities that make us unique.
Mark Twain once said, “Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment”. As long as Americans continue to live extravagantly the economy will continue to suffer.
The fact of the matter is consumers are digging themselves deeper and deeper into financial misfortune. As a college student I understand that my car, as pitiful as it appears, does its job and gets me to work. I do not need heated seats or 22-inch rims to prove my self-worth. As much as I despise Raman noodles, I choke them down for most of my meals every week because they are ridiculously cheap. This does not mean I am not envious when I pass a girl my age in a Beamer with Gucci sunglasses; there is something in me that desires all of that though I am inherently against it. I know that by practicing responsible habits now I save myself from certain liabilities after graduation.
But what about the problems we face today? People everywhere are in debt up to their eyeballs because they bought their dream home in their early thirties instead of saving, or accumulated a massive amount of credit card debt because top of the line accessories add up. So we are here, right now, with people losing their homes along with their sanity, and our government proposes to send out checks to consumer addicts figuring it will help boost the economy? That is basically shooting steroids into people who already spend too much money on things they do not need! Then we turn on the nightly news and consumer advisors tell us to use the checks to pay off credit card debt and to save the rest? How is that going to stimulate an ailing economy? It’s the economy, stupid!
I know I am not a genius by any means, but it seems quite simple to me. Buy what you need now, save along the way, and your future, God willing, will take care of itself. After all, who is going to remember what car you drive twenty years from now?