Consumption Without Consequence
A good friend just returned from a trip overseas. He travels a lot both personally and professionally... Germany, India, China, Vietnam, Israel and Egypt in just the last year or so. He's reluctant to be one of those people who thinks "everything's better in Europe" (even though he's lived there on two separate occasions), but he did relate two interesting tidbits to me yesterday: 1) No matter where he's been, the people in every country (we're talking the professional class) share one belief: George W. Bush is a moron; and
2) In Germany, they just can't understand why the United States can't stop spending money it doesn't have.
The former point has been beaten to death, and consensus on the matter is almost as concrete as gravity or man-made global warming. The latter point is far more interesting anyway, because it refers to something more permanent than a single president.
I asked him if the Germans he talked to were referring to the government or the people. "Both," he said.
It's true, of course. The government runs up debt on revenues it doesn't have. The people spend, spend, spend way beyond their means... using credit to buy non-essential items, taking on interest-only mortgages, guzzling fuel whose supply (even the Wall Street Journal acknowledges as of last week) will soon hit its peak--and, let's never forget, directly funds Wahhabi-based terrorism in Saudi Arabia.
I remember a phrase coming to mind when W. told everyone to be patriotic in the wake of 9/11 by continuing to shop:
"Consumption without Consequence"
I had hoped that I could introduce this phrase into the political lexicon so that certain factions on the Left could use it to hammer certain factions on the Right. That hasn't happened and never will, of course. I'm no Frank Luntz.
But if I could sum up an American trait that has now officially turned from childishly amusing to just plain dangerous, that would be it. We are a nation that believes in consumption without consequence. No, it's not just the stereotype of the SUV-driving suburbanite; it's all of us except the very poor. It's not going to change without a rude awakening, and I suspect that awakening is coming a lot sooner than we'd like to believe.
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That said, "consequence" was the word du jour this past holiday, so it really stopped me in my track when I read that.
Consumption, on a basic level, means to me: diet. What are you putting in your mouth? Why? How much? How will it affect you later? Consequences.
I really think the answer is on a personal level. One to one. Families, coworkers, contacts, it's all connected, in ways difficult to imagine, but it's all there.
Did I say, "The Germans are the model of all things political, social and economic"? No. Strawman.
Does offering any objective criticism about America automatically mean that you're holding up other countries as "models"? No. Strawman.
I would venture to guess that for you, no "model" exists except the good ol' U S of A. Well, right now, with our dependency on a fuel that supports people who want us dead, a dollar so weak that JayZ is waving Euros in his newest video, a government that can name you an enemy combatant based on no evidence and lock you up for life, and, for good measure, rampant obesity from coast to coast, you'd have to admit we're not the model we used to be.
- DK
"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
--Harry Lime