by John Lawrence / Will Blog for Food / June 30, 2011
Everyone is talking about how to get the economy moving again and how to create jobs. President Obama talks about “winning the future.”
This means more education, more entrepreneurialism, more new industries, more new products for consumers to buy.
Surely, all this new economic activity is exactly what we need or is it?
Since the GDP of the US is dependent on consumers consuming to the tune of 70% of the entire economy, it stands to reason that for the economy to expand, consumers need to consume more. But wait a minute. We are already stuffed to the gills with products rammed down our throats by TV advertisers.
Maybe what we need is less consumption. Americans are already experiencing an epidemic of obesity. We should be consuming less fast food. But that would bring the profits of McDonald’s down. They might even have to lay off employees. Their stock might plummet.
Wal-Mart offers us a plethora of cheap crap made in China. But if we stopped buying it, Wal-Mart’s profits would go down, their stock price would tumble and the Dow Jones average might even find itself in bear market territory. Everyone agrees that this would be terrible for the economy. But it might be good for the citizens.
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