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[bobf <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

This article was in this am Wash Post.  When I first started my personal 
rebellion against consumerism was about the same time I orginally joined this 
list.  Now, I will say that she makes a couple of points that are plain 
wrong, but that is being nit-picky; the thrust of the article is right on 
point.  

Not everyone can live rural; most people will continue to live in cities and 
large towns.  It is important for those who have a platform to remind those 
who will listen to avoid the traps of advertising, name-branding, 
materialism, and all other aspects of conspicuous consumption; as well as 
advocating the advantages of rural living.  

There is nothing wrong with buying a name brand item if you know that brand 
represents quality in the item. But,  In our culture, the label or 'brand' 
has become more important than the item or service it represents.  That is 
crass materialism, and that is stupid, I think.  Anyway, take from this 
article what you will...........................


------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

It's Time to Drop The Consumer Label
 
By Michelle Singletary

Sunday, January 4, 2009; Page F01 

One of my New Year's resolutions is to stop referring to myself as a 
consumer. 

The idea for the resolution actually came from reader Tom Krohn, who 
suggested that it's not just the country's spending habits that need to 
change for the better, but the language we use to describe who we are. 

"We Americans are so used to being referred to as 'consumers' that we 
comfortably fall into that role and do so conspicuously," Krohn, a retired 
Navy submariner living in Arkansas, wrote to me. "Imagine an epitaph that 
read, 'Michelle Singletary -- A Wonderful Consumer.' Not very satisfying, is 
it?" 

No, Tom, it's not how I want to live, or die. 

We use the word consumer when referring to ourselves even when the topic 
isn't about consuming. But look at the word consume. According to the 
Merriam-Webster dictionary, consume means "to do away with completely; 
destroy, to spend wastefully; squander." 

And yet we are no longer citizens but consumers. This recession has proved 
that things have to change, and still the message from many of our leaders 
continues to be that consumerism -- consumers -- will save the day. To be a 
consumer is equivalent to being a good American. 


Consumerism has become a basic component of our American citizenship, 
contends Lizabeth Cohen in "A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass 
Consumption in Postwar America." 

"By the end of the Depression decade, invoking 'the consumer' would become an 
acceptable way of promoting the public good, of defending the economic rights 
and needs of ordinary citizens," writes Cohen, a Harvard University 
professor. 

We track closely the results of the Consumer Confidence Survey. Ever wonder 
why it isn't billed as the survey of confidence among the American people -- 
moms, dads, engineers, teachers, social workers, bus drivers, doctors, 
church-goers, etc.? It's not billed that way because we've come to gauge 
where we stand -- for good or bad -- by people's purchasing intentions. 

Why is our confidence driven down by how much less we can spend? 

Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation's gross 
domestic product. That's bad because much of that spending was made possible 
by the overuse of credit -- other people's money. Our economy is a mess today 
because too many people -- individuals and corporate executives -- believed 
it was financially savvy to use other people's money. In many ways, the 
country has participated in a colossal Ponzi scheme. A scam we obviously 
couldn't sustain. We ran out of other people's money. That's what makes a 
Ponzi scheme fail. You can't get any more cash. 

Since the Great Depression, we've embraced and celebrated our consumerism. We 
have mantras such as "I shop, therefore I am." 



I once was part of this madness. In my early newspaper career I had a column 
called "Born to Shop." I defended my passion and the reason for the column by 
arguing I was bargain shopping and therefore saving myself and others money. 

But you never save when you spend. 

Never. 

When you buy things on sale you are still spending money. 

National holidays are celebrated by shopping. We have Veterans Day sales. 
That's how we honor our servicemen and women -- by shopping, by consuming 
more stuff. 

And we are passing this legacy of consumerism on to our children. More 
children go shopping every week than read, go to church, participate in youth 
groups, play outdoors or spend time in household conversation, according to 
consumerism expert and Boston College professor Juliet B. Schor, author of 
"Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture." 

"Although children have long participated in the consumer marketplace, until 
recently they were bit players, purchasers of cheap goods," Schor writes in 
her book. "That has changed. . . . Children's social worlds are increasingly 
constructed around consuming." Schor adds: "Contemporary American tweens and 
teens have emerged as the most brand-oriented, consumer-involved, and 
materialistic generation in history." 


Our children are courted as consumers even before they have full-time 
employment. 

"The kind of consuming people have been encouraged to do is undermining, not 
enhancing, our economic situation," Schor said in an interview. "And all this 
consumption has become financially and ecologically unsustainable. Doing more 
of the same makes those long-term problems worse, even if it props up some 
failing enterprises in the moment." 

Rather than keeping things the same, why don't we again become producers? 

"Households and the country need investment, not consumption," Schor said. 
"We need to invest in energy conservation, degraded ecosystems, a sustainable 
food system, education, community building, human connection and skills for 
everyday living." 

Aren't you weary of being a consumer with all the accompanying debt it 
requires to keep up this occupation? If so, make 2009 the year you stop 
defining yourself as a consumer. 

· On the air: Michelle Singletary discusses personal finance Tuesdays on 
NPR's "Day to Day" program and at http://www.npr.org. 

· By mail: Readers can write to her at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, 
Washington, D.C. 20071. 

· By e-mail: singletarym AT washpost.com.