World’s Designated Shoppers Drop

How much lower can consumer spending go? The malls are like mausoleums, retail clerks are getting laid off, and AOL recently featured on its welcome page the story of man so cheap that he recycles his dental floss – hanging it from a nail in his garage until it dries out.

It could go a lot lower of course. This guy could start saving the little morsels he flosses out and boil them up to augment the children’s breakfast gruel. Already, as the recession or whatever it is closes in, people have stopped buying homes and cars and cut way back on restaurant meals. They don’t have the money; they don’t have the credit; and increasingly they’re finding that no one wants their money anyway. NPR reported on February 28 that more and more Manhattan stores are accepting Euros and at least one has gone Euros-only.

The Sharper Image has declared bankruptcy and is closing 96 U.S. stores. (To think I missed my chance to buy those headphones that treat you to forest sounds while massaging your temples!) Victoria’s Secret is so desperate that it’s adding fabric to its undergarments. Starbucks had no sooner taken time off to teach its baristas how to make coffee than it started laying them off.

While Americans search for interview outfits in consignment stores and switch from Whole Foods to Wal-Mart for sustenance, the world watches tremulously. The Australian Courier-Mail, for example, warns of an economic “pandemic” if Americans cut back any further, since we are responsible for $9 trillion a year in spending, compared to a puny $1 trillion for the one billion-strong Chinese. Yes, we have been the world’s designated shoppers, and, if we fall down on the job, we take the global economy with us.

“Shop till you drop,” was our motto, by which we didn’t mean to say we were more compassion-worthy than a woman fainting at her work station in some Honduran sweatshop. It was just our proper role in the scheme of things. Some people make stuff; other people have to buy it. And when we gave up making stuff, starting in the 1980s, we were left with the unique role of buying. Remember Bush telling us, shortly after 9/11, to get out there and shop? It may have seemed ludicrous at the time, but what he meant was get back to work.

We took pride in our role in the global economy. No doubt it takes some skill to make things, but what about all the craft that goes into buying them – finding a convenient parking space at the mall, navigating our way through department stores laid out for maximum consumer confusion, determining which of our credit cards still has a smidgeon of credit in it? Not everyone could do this, especially not people whose only experience was stitching, assembling, wiring, and packaging the stuff that we bought.

But if we thought we were special, they thought we were marks. They could make anything, and we would dutifully buy it. I once found, in a party store, a baseball cap with a plastic turd affixed to its top and the words “shit head” on the visor. The label said “made in the Philippines” and the makers must have been convulsed as they made it. If those dumb Yanks will buy this…

There’s talk already of emergency measures, like making Christmas a weekly holiday, although this would require a level of deforestation that could leave Cheney with no quail to hunt.

More likely, there’ll be a move to outsource shopping, just as we’ve already outsourced manufacturing, customer service, X-ray reading, and R & D. But to whom? The Indians are clever enough, but right now they only account for $600 million in consumer spending a year. And could they really be trusted to put a flat screen TV in every child’s room, distinguish Guess jeans from a knock-off, and replace their kitchen counters on an annual basis?

And what happens to us, the world’s erstwhile shoppers? The president recently observed, in one of his more sentient moments, that unemployment is “painful.” But if a pink slip hurts, what about a letter from Citicard announcing that you’ve been laid off as a shopper? Will we fill our vacant hours twisting recycled dental floss onto spools or will we decide that, if we can’t shop, we’re going to have to shoplift?

Because we’ve shopped till we dropped alright, face down on the floor.

Comments

[Chickensh*tEagle]

Getting back to the Israelis and Palestinians...

Just kidding. Anyway, I like my big screen TV as much as the next guy. Looks like I bought it just in time.

[roger]

" I once found, in a party store, a baseball cap with a plastic turd affixed to its top and the words “shit head” on the visor. The label said “made in the Philippines” and the makers must have been convulsed as they made it. If those dumb Yanks will buy this… "

i once found online a research facility which utilized the finest brain scanning equipment in the world. this equipment is used to diagnose tramatic brain injury and anticipate alzheimer's disease. if those dumb yanks will buy that......

http://www.mclean.harvard.edu/research/neuroimaging/

the thing cannot always be diminished to the least common denominator irregardless of how much barabara would like to depict americans as foolish, shallow and farcical .

[Chickensh*tEagle]

Very nice, roger. Now, who will have access to this beautiful equipment when they can't even afford to buy those shit-head caps?

[roger]

how did you come under the impression that tax dollars will not pay the fees for people to have these procedures. what do you think senator clinton means when she insists on universal coverage, automatic enrollment and wage garnishment for reluctant individuals for the purpose of paying for universal health care.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1709472,00.html

[Bobby Decker]

LOOKS LIKE ILL BE EXCHANGING MY TIN FOIL HAT FOR THE PAUL REVERE MODEL ANYDAY NOW!!!!

[Suebob]

I once met a woman, the wife of a powerful entertainment exec, who was having her granite countertops replaced with new granite countertops in a different color because the first set were "too dark and depressing." I wondered how long the average granite countertop would last under heavy use without replacement. 5000 years? 10,000? "Wow," I said. "You must love to cook." "Oh, no," she replied. "I never cook. But caterers always love this kitchen."

[tamar]

Expose, expose, expose. This is great. Beyond fans (such as me) and attackers (such as some commenters), do policy makers, presidential candidates, and other "leaders" able to address core issues get it and do something useful? How do your ideas become part of the platforms for change that we seek?

[Jacqueline Homan]

For the past 30 years, segments of displaced workers have been saying this would happen. For the past 30 years as poverty was created by design, the "haves" and "have-mores" have off-handedly told the "have-nots" to "stop comlaining". The formerly well-off told the poor to "stop whining" about things, and that if they were poor and couldn't afford basic needs - let alone any extras - it was all their own fault. It was their fault for not getting college educations, for not having the most up-to-date-skills, whatever.

Now the chickens have come home to roost...Those who had enjoyed having theirs while not caring that countless others were left out are finally feeling the pinch. And of course, I imagine they want sympathy instead of being told to "stop whining" as their investment accounts tank, and they must sell their Cadillac Escalades for a song in addition to their suburban homes.

But they brought this on themselves because they had their blinders on. They spent the last 30 years cruising through life on auto-pilot. As long as they were living comfortably and had theirs, they didn't care about those of us who never got ours: people who have done all the right things but who still got left out economically; people who are food insecure, who freeze in the winter, and who have had no access to health and dental care.

But pointing fingers and saying "I told you so" is not going to fix this mess. Everyone should wake up, smell the coffee, and form a united front to take a stand against those chiefly responsible for this economic quagmire of not enough jobs, gutted safety nets, unaffordable energy and fuel costs, and runaway prescription drugs/medical costs.

If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, you might want to check out a book "Classism For Dimwits" at Amazon.com.

[roger]

" Everyone should wake up, smell the coffee, and form a united front to take a stand against those chiefly responsible for this economic quagmire of not enough jobs, gutted safety nets, unaffordable energy and fuel costs, and runaway prescription drugs/medical costs. "

i imagine that you will insist that the ones who created the jobs in the first place are those cruel and punitive patriarchs who now are making off with the loot.

who precisely is responsible for this mess.

[roger]

i read another blog by another socialist whose attitude toward common folk and specifically fellow americans is similar to the tone here:

" This bad news just in: Not only do you have to buy your way into the American middle class through forceful consumption of the lifestyle, but you have to buy your way out of it. I'm serious. Buy your right to live in poverty. Let's say you've managed to get your kids through college one way or another, usually via a second mortgage and loans, and you decide like I did to say: ---- ----. I've done right by my family. Now I've got high blood pressure, a bad back, and a million other stress ailments. I'm overweight and have terrible lungs. Now I want to escape the ever rising cost and stress of playing the game, the grinding chase after enough net worth to feel safe about such things as health care and a safe place to ----. Spend a few years in some warm place blinking at blue, unpolluted sky before I go tits up. "

i left out some profanity. why do socialists insist on seeing the working class in this degenerate and barren manner. what about the tremendous accomplishments by this same society of intelligent and industrious persons. it seems to be the same tone over and again: helplessness and doom.

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2006/02/welcome_to_midd.html

[roger]

cited by joe bageant, barbara's fellow traveler:

"Take away America's Wal-Mart junk and cheap electronics and what you have left is a mindless primitive tribe and a gaggle of bullshit artists pretending to lead them."
-- James "Mad Dog" Howard

and you call me callous and cynical.

[Chickensh*tEagle]

roger: "how did you come under the impression that tax dollars will not pay the fees for people to have these procedures."

Well, for one thing, McCain might get elected.

"what do you think senator clinton means when she insists on universal coverage, automatic enrollment and wage garnishment for reluctant individuals for the purpose of paying for universal health care."

Kinda sounds like you don't want John Q. Public to have access to those machines if Hillary has anything to do with it!

Actually, my fear about Hillary's plan is that John Q. public will get the mandates, but the for-profit health-care business will fuck him over all the worse when he's forced to buy their "coverage."

Those sure are beautiful machines, though.

[roger]

medicaid and medicare process medical claims with or without mccain and with or without wage garnishment as promoted by senator clinton to pay for universal health care.

[Anarcissie]

roger: '... why do socialists insist on seeing the working class in this degenerate and barren manner. what about the tremendous accomplishments by this same society of intelligent and industrious persons. it seems to be the same tone over and again: helplessness and doom. ...'

Seems to me hating the working class and the currently popular apprehension of doom are two different feelings about two different things.

I think the first thing is just a defective subset of the more general view: "I'm not prejudiced, I hate everybody." The mentioned haters just need to broaden their perspective. "Odi profanum vulgus" is itself vulgar -- in fact, it's a pop song these days.

The apprehension of doom comes about because our elites have functioned poorly. They have created huge amounts of imaginary wealth which is not in fact based on anything real. As a result, credit, upon which our economy and its financial system are based, is vanishing and the superstructure is collapsing. The disappearing consumer is merely the canary in the coal mine. It is hard to know which way to jump when our lords and masters are confused, irrational, maybe even moronic.

[bpb]

Hey Roger - there's no such word as "irregardless."

[roger]

hey its chickenshit's job to tell me what is a word and what is not a word.....

[Chickensh*tEagle]

Only if you challenge a word I use, or if you use a word with an unclear meaning. "Irregardless" is a word that dictionary.com labels "nonstandard," but few people fail to understand it.

[Anarcissie]

"Irregardless" is good. It gives you a chance to grind the first _r_ before you spit it out, which is usually appropriate for the kind of conversation you're having when you use the word.

[Jacqueline Homan]

Roger said: "i imagine that you will insist that the ones who created the jobs in the first place are those cruel and punitive patriarchs who now are making off with the loot.

who precisely is responsible for this mess."

So Roger, how's the Kool-Aid?

Those "cruel punitive patriarchs" did NOT create those jobs or their wealth by their own single-handed efforts. If it were not for the supporting classes, and masses of exploited working poor, they would not have what they have. If you need a history lesson which supports this, I suggest you read "Classism For Dimwits", particularly chapters 7-8. That clarifies it in a nutshell.

As to who precisely is responsible for this mess:

First, the ruling elite whose greed is going to become their own undoing - while leaving untold misery and suffering in their wake. I cite glaring examples of only some of their misdeeds in chapters 7 and 8.

Second, those who voted for politicians that supported the policies of greed of the ultra rich (at the expense of hurting the working class and the poor) over these last 20-30 years and therefore selling the "little guy" down the river - they're also responsible. They voted for congresspeople and presidents who enacted (for the lasst 3 decades) policies entailing "voo-doo economics". The middle class voters thought (mistakingly) that there was something in it for them, and as long as they were living comfortably they didn't care about those who have been left out. Unfortunately, this is now coming back to bite them in the backside as more middle class people fall into poverty.

Multinational corporations have never, and I repeat NEVER, been loyal to this nation or its masses of people who enabled them to get their wealth. They did not singlehandedly create the railroads, the oil wells, etc.

Now Roger, since you seem to think that socialists, progressives in particular, are the bad bogeymen under your bed and that we're the enemy to "free trade", let me enlighten you:

We do not have, nor have we had, "free trade". What we have is a rigged market of socialized wealth for the elite and of privatized risk for the masses. I prove that point very clearly in the middle of chapter 6 (pages 307-318).

I would suggest that you read my book and I would also suggest that you read Barbara's book "Bait & Switch" if you haven't already done so, in addition to "See Poverty - Be The Difference" by Dr. Donna M. Beegle.

[Chickensh*tEagle]

"...since you seem to think that socialists, progressives in particular..."

Tell me, which socialists aren't progressives? Are all progressives socialists? You seem to have your categories a bit muddled.

Also, although I don't agree with roger about much, he's not a dimwit. I think the imperious way you tell him to read "Classism for Dimwits" is gratuitously insulting.

[lc2]

I for one have seen the silver lining in some of this belt-tightening this winter. I now see what an utter waste of money and sodium it is to eat out. Of course I realize this will put some low-paid restaurant workers out of work (since I only ate at low-end diners anyway) and I feel bad about that, but I have to feed my own family first. I'm dusting off my natural food cookbooks and revising some stick-to-the-ribs rice and beans recipes. Frozen kale is really good if you roast it in a 350 degree oven, and costs half as much as fresh, 1/3 as much as fresh/organic. Am also planning a giant garden this summer for the first in many and will preserve some of it. These are all good developments.

Keeping the house at 60 degrees during the day, 58 at night, sucked at first, but now I realize that it doesn't have to feel like I'm walking into a blast furnace, coming in from the snow. The trick is to put your slippers and sweater or jacket on (and a hat, on the coldest days) when you first enter the house.

Clothes? Toys? Hah! Those greedy retailers can kiss my JC Penney clearance-clad ass. Sorry to say, but I'm not really thinking about the working conditions in the Maldives right now. Got my partner a bunch of neckties for $2.97 apiece a few weeks back. I'm sure they were irresponsibly produced by women in the Maldives, but I need to clothe my own family first.

As for that impending stimulus payment? (Giving the IRS the finger). Going straight to my overdue bills, the consistently two months behind utility payments mainly.

The prob I see is, college students everywhere, in the space of a decade or two, have lost touch w/what a "starving student" actually is. I see these idiots walking around droning mindlessly on their cell phones (it wasn't the least bit unheard of to lack a personal phone of any kind when I was in school), ensconced in North Face (just in case you miss the logo on the front, there's one on the back shoulder, too), whining to their cell-phone buddies about how Mom and Dad are giving them grief over the SUV gas bills that get sent directly home to be paid. If these kidlets don't wise up and eat Ramen and wear thrift-store chic the way the rest of us did in college, we're all in trouble. Where have all the hippies gone?

[Chickensh*tEagle]

"...Frozen kale is really good if you roast it in a 350 degree oven, and costs half as much as fresh, 1/3 as much as fresh/organic. Am also planning a giant garden this summer..."

Don't forget to plant some kale and Brussels sprouts. We were picking pre-frozen kale from under the snow in December and Brussels sprouts in January.

"Keeping the house at 60 degrees during the day, 58 at night, sucked at first, but now I realize that it doesn't have to feel like I'm walking into a blast furnace, coming in from the snow."

Would wood heat be practical for you? We have a wood stove in the living room and a wood-burning cook stove with an oversize firebox in the kitchen, either one of which will heat the whole house. We're always toasty while a lot of others are scrimping on oil and electricity and shivering.

[lc2]

Well now that you mention it, we do have ready access to firewood (have a sizeable woodlot on our property) ... but no money at the moment for a stove, or what I've heard is truly efficient, a wood furnace. That will be our next investment for sure, along w/solar panels for hot water. Our house is also quite small (800 sq. ft) and well-insulated, so that helps. Doesn't take much to keep it heated at 60. We used 125 gal. of oil in the first 9 weeks after we'd turned the thermostat to the "on" position, so not too bad.

Agree on the brassicas ... so easy to grow, and far sweeter and tastier if they've weathered a few frosts.

I've just really tried to get out of the "treat myself" mindset, know what I mean? I don't "deserve" a cup of coffee just because I'm driving somewhere, I don't "need" a new pair of pants just because I'm tired of the old, or they have a few mend-able rips.

Granted, this comes from a firmly middle-class perspective; I don't claim to have insight into the lives of people for whom ecomomic security is an unattainable dream. But I'm really glad we've kept our lifestyle so relatively low-key over the years .... it will smart a lot less when the credit faucet gets turned off for real. But I really do fear for a generation of people who think cell phones and laptops are as necessary as food and shelter.

If the middle class in the U.S. ends up becoming politicized after having its McMansions and technological toys taken away, I wonder: will it be as sweet to witness as it would if such a movement was born of true class consciousness? Hmmmm.

[roger]

" Now Roger, since you seem to think that socialists, progressives in particular, are the bad bogeymen under your bed and that we're the enemy to "free trade", let me enlighten you: "

there is nothing in the world i would prefer than to be enlightened by you. i clicked on your name expecting to find a philosophical or doctrinal defense of your positions and i found a paperback book.

my perspective surrounding socialism is indexed against the show trials of the 30s, the gold mines in kolyma under stalin's administration (i am being too charitable to use this word in reference to stalin), and the experiment in building socialism in the german democratic republic. i have read scores of first hand accounts of prisoners and apologists of socialism and communism of the russian and german varieties. i would anticipate from you therefore some manner of defense or apology for this tyranny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_trials

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolyma

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fechter

[Anarcissie]

"Socialism", at least as defined by the original socialists, is the ownership or control of the means of production by the workers, or the people generally. Any producers' cooperative or partnership of equals is socialist in this sense.

The idea seems to appeal strongly to a lot of people. Hence, many political organizers have used it for marketing purposes without much concern for actually enacting it. Thus we had the National Socialist Workers' Party (Nazis) in Germany, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Neither of these outfits was remotely socialist in actuality.

However, rightists, who hate the idea of personal freedom and the equality freedom necessitates, picked up on the usage eagerly. They have made the word "socialism" equal "government control", while "democracy" has been made to mean "capitalism" -- the sort of abuse of language Orwell warned about in _1984_. "Socialism" does not mean "government control" and traditional capitalism is not at all democratic, unless we turn all language into meaningless propaganda.

I am sorry to see this abuse, this obstruction of meaning and understanding, carried on here, especially when we could be discussing something important to all of us like the collapse of the present economy and its financial system. But there it is.