A”Joe Citizen” View on the Economy

I need to say this upfront.  I am not a professional economist.  I am an abider.  I have to live within the economy but I do not have an experts insight into economics.  That being said,  I have an opinion based on observation.  As you may have guessed….I’m going to share it.

Here are my premises:

We live in a growth based economy. 

 In order for it to succeed, it needs to get bigger. 

Our economy does that by  companies selling more. 

Corporations are built upon the premises that:

1) Growth happens when they sell more,

2) Competition, though  required, is a bad thing.

3)  All Americans should buy more and pay more than anyone else. 

On a corporate level, Profit is bad and less profit is worse.  The only good profit is “more profit”. 

This means there can be no top.  There can be no point at which we as consumers can spend less. 

If we do spend less, corporations make less money and our economy declines.

If you agree with the premises and I’m not sure anyone will, then you might also agree with me  that our economic strategies are flawed.

Here’s how:

We have determined that the short term solution to a declining economy is the infusion of short term cash to encourage us to spend more in the long term.  These “stimulus packages” are intended to get us back to the credit table so we may withdraw more of what we haven’t yet earned and give it to those who have earned enough but are not happy with that.

Our growth economy does have a top.  There is a point when consumers will stop paying to buy more because they don’t have it to spend or because the acquisitions of the past are requiring that they slow down their spending until they “catch-up”. 

The Corporate concept of  ”catch-up” and the consumer concept of catch-up is different.  Consumers need to find a point at which they can manage their households and expand their own economy gradually.

Corporate catch-up is that point at which I convince you to buy more.  I will employ any tactic.  I will, cheat, steal, lie, coerce, manipulate, exaggerate, and commiserate, with my friends, enemies, and governmental officials.  I will use my children, my wife, your children,  your wife, your patriotism, your sense of responsibility, your sense of duty, your sense of outrage,  your guilt, your insecurities,  your neighbors, their neighbors, your friends , their friends, your children’s friends,  and the local media.  I will assault you until you realize that every dollar you receive has my name on it.  And I will have it.  Even if I have to pry out from your cold, dead fingers. 

This is my solution:

We need to stop participating in the cororate economy.  Buy local from people who,like ourselves,  have a real connection to the community.

We need to understand that we hold the power.  That means instead of believing in the threat of massive layoffs if we stop buying what we don’t need through big box stores run by giant corporations, buy from your next door neighbor who has a real concern for your community and then participate in the local economy by offering a product or service of your own in your community.  The reality is that by watching corporate america gag itself  with its own economic vomit we will put more Americans back to work and bring back the America our forefathers dreamed of built on values, local control and community involvement.  We are now slaves to the corporate concept of the American way and our government is a willing participant  in collusion with the World Bank the United Nations and the IMF.

We need to rethink the value we place on things and remember the value we placed in people and the value people placed in us.

Stop buying into the Bullshit that says we live in a global economy.

Remember that while the Chinese people produce just about everything we consume, they can not afford to purchase any of  it. 

Buy locally…..Think locally.

These are, after all, the musing of a mind that wanders