Buy More Useless Crap From China!

As I write this, most consumers, and many economic forecasters, are damn near orgasmic over Shrub's tax rebate proposal. Under the plan each taxpayer will receive a check for six hundred smackeroos to do with as he or she pleases. Of course, the Prez, the Fed, and all of corporate America hope consumers will buy more useless crap from China, and thus keep the economic bubble afloat on an updraft of unfounded optimism, for at least awhile longer.

In yesterday's Chicago Tribune there was a series of person-on-the-street interviews in which a reporter asked random passersbys what they plan to do with their mini-windfalls. Then the Trib had economists grade consumer responses based on how much they would be doing to stimulate the economy. The only guy that got an "A" was the one who planned to use all $600 to go to more Cubs games! The people who planned to save their money got a bottom of the barrel "D." As did the woman who was going to use the rebate to help pay for an educational trip overseas.

In other words, let stupidity reign! It's good for the economy. Even though as a nation we are at an all time low savings rate, actually a negative savings rate (i.e., we are spending our savings rather than adding to it), we are encouraged to buy more shit we don't need in order to be patriotic! Talk about a house of cards.

By participating in the reconomy, you are spending less for your wants and needs, and hopefully turning your savings into savings. Also, hopefully, you are living simply and buying smarter, not feeling the need to own every high tech bangle that Silicon Valley has to offer, or to purchase every tres chic item that Madison Avenue parades before your eyes.

Don't get fooled into believing that we can save an overblown economy by spending more money on stuff we don't really need. It's a quick fix that merely hides the real problem -- people are living way beyond their means, chasing happiness through owning rather than being. In the end it's a lose/lose game for all players.

The first step out of this morass is to is to simplify your life. Get rid of all the stuff you have that you don't really need. Stimulate your own personal economy by selling it at a yard sale, on Craigslist, or to a second hand store. Use the reconomy to sell as well as buy.

Then when you need something, think used rather than new. By buying used, trading, bartering and giving/receiving, you are not just saving your money, but also saving planetary resources. Ben Bernacki may not like you, Wall Street may snub you, but your children, your grandchildren, and the Earth itself, will thank you.