In January I read an article by Rick Newman from the U.S. News and World Report entitled 17 Ways Consumers Are Changing. The article detailed how consumers have changed in light of the economic turmoil we've been experiencing the last several years. The current assault on the middle class, thanks to tax breaks to the very wealthiest of Americans, the greed of said wealthiest Americans as evidenced by the banking industry, and the out-of-control, non-regulated, no-competition healthcare industry (see #14 on the list) - has left most Americans holding their wallets close to their chests. Go figure.
Reading this article made me think, "This doesn't have to be all doom and gloom." If there's one thing that I learned from this economic downturn it's that American over-consumption keeps the world going round. The tchotchkes we purchase for next to nothing (and don't even need) allow China to pay their workers next to nothing, and allows them, in turn, to put American workers out of business and out of jobs. So when we stop shopping...when we pare back to what's necessary..omigosh...all hell breaks loose!
Who knew the world depended on Americans killing themselves, working way too may hours, just to buy plastic baubles? It turns out hoarders were right...crap is very, very important.








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