[quote=briansd1]I think that sdrealtor and Arraya are both right.
We do expect to consume a lot more these days; and we do. That had driven economic growth more toward consumption and less to investments on improving productivity.
But that’s what increasing standard of living is all about — having more stuff. By that standard, Americans live better than ever.
Arraya is saying that more stuff is not what’s important to standard of living. Fed by marketing that push our psychological buttons, our consumption society is inducing more stress and anxiety on a population that’s driven to consume.[/quote]
No doubt, cyclical consumption is pushed in certain ways with people following through – whether “keeping up with the jones” is more or less prevalent now than a generation ago is hard to discern. I’d say it probably is – but to any meaningful extent beyond the detrimental changes that were out of their hands, probably not. Shopping does serve a function like it does with alcohol to addicts and if you understand the addict brain – it has zero to do with will power.
Still Elizabeth Warrens presentation was pretty conclusive in the increased uncontrollable expenses and risks to the modern family.
An article just came out saying that 2/3rd of all Americans don’t have $1000 dollars incase of an emergency. I bet you could put another 15 % on top of that with no significant savings. That is a social disaster waiting to happen regardless of fault.
Lets say, for the sake of argument, a portion of these people are “over consuming” – have high debt loads and no savings because of this. What happens to employment(in a 70% consumption based economy) if that consumption goes away? Those “unhealthy” patterns of behavior might be saving a lot of jobs!
So, it appears, that “over consumption” and the anxiety that drives it serves a purpose? Are these people being irresponsible or doing what society asks of them?
Another interesting set of data came out. It said 75% of the people think the economy is headed in the wrong direction. While, at the same time, consumer spending was going up, markedly. What does this tell us? It’s either that people, knowing the economy is going into the toilet are trying to help out OR depressed people shop more!
It’s like a big debt-anxiety-consumption driven treadmill that is about to fly off the tracks.
