Don't Let Holiday Shopping Statistics Mislead You
Holiday shopping reports indicate people keep spending. If the numbers are reliable, shopping is up from last Christmas. Does this mean the economy's fine? No.
Just because people buy more stuff now doesn't necessarily indicate the economy's OK. It could be that people who were spending less recently are now making up for what they didn't buy before - not all of it related to Christmas shopping.
Even if it is all Christmas shopping - gifts - it doesn't mean things are great or even getting better. It just means that people are willing to spend money to buy stuff for Christmas, even if they're on a tight budget. People have always loosened up to celebrate Christmas.
What really strikes me, though, is this idea that because people buy stuff it means the economy's healthy. People buying stuff is basically part of the whole "consumer" culture that took over the country in the 20th century. I'm not saying that consumer products developed during the century are fundamentally bad. In fact, a lot of products developed made life better. Just remember that at one time there were no washing machines. People had to wash clothes by hand.
But the consumer culture really got out of hand as the years rolled by. And we got to the point where people spend because it makes them feel good. I'm not talking about the product making them feel good. That's not so bad. I'm talking about the act of spending money and buying stuff that makes some people feel good. That's the dark side of the consumerism.
I hope you see that that sort of behavior - accompanied by "feeling good" - isn't really good for you. You've got to be more responsible than to spend your time and money just shopping because it feels good. You've got to have more serious endeavors that you spend time and money on than shopping. Really.
As for spending being good for the economy, it one sense it's good. If no one spends, we'll be in a depression. But this feel-good spending which isn't good for you ultimately can't be good for the economy as a whole either. When our country grew during the 19th century, the economic activity at that time had to do with building railroads, ships, farm equipment, manufacturing machinery, infrastructure, etc. America grew and became strong.
Compare that to the sort of economic activity based on consumer spending, where people just "feel good" merely by spending money - frequently on completely useless junk. And, yes, most of the clothes purchase you make, toys you buy for your kids, electronic gadgets you keep buying and "upgrading" - all of that is pretty much junk, most of it pretty much useless. (Do you really need the iPhone 4S to replace your iPhone 4?)
So this jump in Christmas spending probably won't wind up being all that good for the economy and probably doesn't signal that the economy's getting better. Unless you think an economy that consists of people spending money (sometimes money they don't have) on useless stuff and feeling good about it is somehow a healthy economy. If it's not healthy for us as people, what could it mean to say that it's healthy for "the economy"?
Just because people buy more stuff now doesn't necessarily indicate the economy's OK. It could be that people who were spending less recently are now making up for what they didn't buy before - not all of it related to Christmas shopping.
Even if it is all Christmas shopping - gifts - it doesn't mean things are great or even getting better. It just means that people are willing to spend money to buy stuff for Christmas, even if they're on a tight budget. People have always loosened up to celebrate Christmas.
What really strikes me, though, is this idea that because people buy stuff it means the economy's healthy. People buying stuff is basically part of the whole "consumer" culture that took over the country in the 20th century. I'm not saying that consumer products developed during the century are fundamentally bad. In fact, a lot of products developed made life better. Just remember that at one time there were no washing machines. People had to wash clothes by hand.
But the consumer culture really got out of hand as the years rolled by. And we got to the point where people spend because it makes them feel good. I'm not talking about the product making them feel good. That's not so bad. I'm talking about the act of spending money and buying stuff that makes some people feel good. That's the dark side of the consumerism.
I hope you see that that sort of behavior - accompanied by "feeling good" - isn't really good for you. You've got to be more responsible than to spend your time and money just shopping because it feels good. You've got to have more serious endeavors that you spend time and money on than shopping. Really.
As for spending being good for the economy, it one sense it's good. If no one spends, we'll be in a depression. But this feel-good spending which isn't good for you ultimately can't be good for the economy as a whole either. When our country grew during the 19th century, the economic activity at that time had to do with building railroads, ships, farm equipment, manufacturing machinery, infrastructure, etc. America grew and became strong.
Compare that to the sort of economic activity based on consumer spending, where people just "feel good" merely by spending money - frequently on completely useless junk. And, yes, most of the clothes purchase you make, toys you buy for your kids, electronic gadgets you keep buying and "upgrading" - all of that is pretty much junk, most of it pretty much useless. (Do you really need the iPhone 4S to replace your iPhone 4?)
So this jump in Christmas spending probably won't wind up being all that good for the economy and probably doesn't signal that the economy's getting better. Unless you think an economy that consists of people spending money (sometimes money they don't have) on useless stuff and feeling good about it is somehow a healthy economy. If it's not healthy for us as people, what could it mean to say that it's healthy for "the economy"?
Comments