2.28.05
There
have been a few ex-consumer-related articles in the newspapers
the past few days.
For
a good opinion piece about how we brought Wal*Mart upon
ourselves, check out today's New York Times Opinion article
by Robert Reich titled "Don't
Blame Walmart". It sounds like it will be insufferable,
but it's actually a good article about being a responsible
consumer.
Another
interesting piece turned up in the Wall Street Journal.
This is a e-tete-a-tete between two financial analysts/bloggers/professors,
debating whether or not Americans are saving enough money.
It may at first seem like this is a conservative plan to
get you to buy cheaper stuff (see preceding paragraph),
but in the discussion these two fairly conservative analysts
acknowledge that it is a) hard for lower to lower-middle
income wage earners to earn enough to save, that b) the
government won't have money to make up for our savings deficit,
and that c) the low savings rate may be evidence of over-consumption
by Americans. These guys are real economists, and in the
end, they conclude that there might not actually
be a precipitous decline in savings after all... but for
all that, they were concrned enough that there might
be that they wrote the article. Click here
for spin through "Amid Low Rainy-Day Savings, Proposals
for New Incentives."
A
choice quote follows, and this from the mouth of an economist:
"Suppose,
for the sake of argument, the decline in the NIPA-measured
personal saving rate is giving us a more or less accurate
picture of the underlying reality, and that reality is the
pace of sustained capital accumulation in the U.S. is shifting
downward because consumers in the U.S. have decided to,
well, do more consuming. As citizens, you and I may have
something to say about this. Do we as economists?
An analog might be the currently voguish argument (in some
quarters) that the leisure-loving Europeans have it right,
and the workaholic Americans have it all wrong. Sure, European
unemployment rates are higher. Sure, GDP growth will be
higher on this side of the Atlantic. But those tradeoffs,
so some say, are well worth it. The world would be a better
place if we would only just stop and smell the roses."
---David
Altig for the WSJ Online
----
2.19.05
The Ex-Consumer page is finally up and running, and I've
written two really silly articles for it. The one on my
rationale for the project
is going to have to be changed, because right now it's dour
and boring, and could probably be summarized accurately
by a one-liner on some Cambridge Crazy's bumper sticker.
The other, on January is
saved by the photos on the sidebar. I've also included my
album of stupid, recent purchases,
which I think is the best part of the page so far. I REALLY
hope that somebody will go see it, and then decide that
they want to be the featured "stupid consumer"
for March.
This
sidebar on the main Ex-Consumer page is going to be my blog.
I don't like the word blog, or the idea of blogs, or how
dreadfully trendy blogs are. But I've got a sidebar, and
I've got a website, and I've got a goofy project. So here's
the place to find out how it's all going.
Anyway,
welcome to the Ex-Consumer page. I hope it stays fun and
doesn't make anyone think I'm a boring, bummer of an idealouge.
love Carla, 11 pm EST
Ex-Consumer
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