"tcmay,re:"disaster Xmas". Good catch. The 'never enough'
consumers need to have more garage sales, more storage
(bigger houses) to 'consume what they have'. This is the
best marketing country. "
Indeed, somewhere along the line people here in America became convinced that the measure of our economic health is our consumption of toys, gadgets, clothing, cars, video games, Walkmans, DVDs, and other bits of consumption cruft.
Hence the constant refrains about "good" or "bad" Xmases, with "good" being defined as people buying armloads of junk.
I would measure longterm economic health by how much time people are spending learning skills and studying difficult subjects. For example, how many people are in science and engineering, as opposed to Black Studies, Sociology, Marketing, Chiropractic Science (!), and Real Estate License Study.
Compared to what I saw in the 1960s, with our national focus (compared to today) with math, science, engineering, today's kids are not bothering with these difficult subjects. As Barbi says, "Math is _hard_!"
We will reap what we sow, and, to mix metaphors, the chickens will come home to roost around 2015.
China, by contrast, has virtually no use for having its college students studying Sociology or Interpersonal Effectiveness, etc. Most of its college students are in the sciences and engineering.
The die is cast.
--Tim May |
