This was a ditty from the old, old, old days in Canada.
In the States it was some other financial institution, which probably no longer exists, having been consumed by one of the mega-banks whose reason for being was in part to ensure future financial crises were real blingers! Anyhow, we have touched on Save versus Consume before. We have tried to mock the mindless consumption of our society.
Now there is a wonderful article written about the new economic stimulus which very well highlights why we should Save and not go out and just Shop, even though the President and Congress and Federal Reserve - all very bright numbers- have ordered us to do so.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/25/AR2008012502047.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 Washington Post
Why the Stimulus Shouldn't Stimulate You
By Steven E. Landsburg Sunday, January 27, 2008
Consumption versus Savings...reminds us of Exploitation versus Husbandry...of Saving the Environment versus Destroying the Environment...Consume or Save. The history of the last 50 years at least has been to consume more and more, to create a bigger and bigger footprint on the face of the world. We have been talking for years about the deficit and how we shall impoverish our grandchildren. We are destroying the future by rampant spending on nothing. If we were getting a superior quality of life by Consuming and Exploiting, that would be one thing, but we are not.
We are eating the future!
In the States it was some other financial institution, which probably no longer exists, having been consumed by one of the mega-banks whose reason for being was in part to ensure future financial crises were real blingers! Anyhow, we have touched on Save versus Consume before. We have tried to mock the mindless consumption of our society.
Now there is a wonderful article written about the new economic stimulus which very well highlights why we should Save and not go out and just Shop, even though the President and Congress and Federal Reserve - all very bright numbers- have ordered us to do so.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/25/AR2008012502047.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 Washington Post
Why the Stimulus Shouldn't Stimulate You
By Steven E. Landsburg Sunday, January 27, 2008
"...the average American worker today earns roughly nine times as much as his 1840 counterpart. That's because today's worker is roughly nine times as productive. (You might have thought it had something to do with labor unions, but even at their most powerful, no union could ever extract blood from a stone or extract wages that exceeded the value of production.) Today's workers are more productive because they're working with better equipment -- computerized looms instead of handlooms, for example. That equipment was built from raw materials that were available because someone chose not to consume them. So if 19th-century Americans had been encouraged to consume more, you'd be earning less today. And if you and I are encouraged to consume more, our grandchildren will earn less in the future. If you care about your grandchildren, you should be encouraging everyone else not to consume, but to save."
Consumption versus Savings...reminds us of Exploitation versus Husbandry...of Saving the Environment versus Destroying the Environment...Consume or Save. The history of the last 50 years at least has been to consume more and more, to create a bigger and bigger footprint on the face of the world. We have been talking for years about the deficit and how we shall impoverish our grandchildren. We are destroying the future by rampant spending on nothing. If we were getting a superior quality of life by Consuming and Exploiting, that would be one thing, but we are not.
We are eating the future!
Chronos Devouring His Children by Goya
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