"This is the end of the consumer-based economy," said Peter Schiff, who runs the investment firm Euro Pacific Capital Inc. in Darien, Conn. "Americans have been buying too much stuff, and now the epic shopping spree is over. It is a permanent change."
Analysts believe consumers — who usually account for about 70 percent of economic activity — will no longer be the key driver of the economy, said Scott Hoyt, senior director of consumer economics at Moody's Economy.com.
Consumerism is changing rapidly and dramatically never to return to what it's been like only a few months ago. Buying for the sake of buying will be a thing of the past for many hard core consumers of things that have no purpose other than to sit on shelves waiting to be bought by someone who needs something to buy that given day.
"Let's spend the day shopping" will seldom be heard as in the past.
As a nation that contains 5% of the worlds population and consumes 40% of the worlds resources it's an equation that could never be worked out and at some time there had to be a day of reckoning. The recent banking crisis brought it to a head very quickly.
The chickens have come home to roost and are taking a giant shit on our flawed outlook as to where we fit into what has become a global society.
The lie we have been living for the last 8 years under Bush has been debilitating to watch! I was not part of this borrowing idiocy and I was waiting for it to catch up to people. It has and it will get much worse as this is just beginning!
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that our buying habits will change, and that our culture's seeming desire for consumption for its own sake should end, I think it's crazy to think that it's going to be gone forever. Things will right themselves eventually, and we'll go back, in some way, to being consumers again.
ReplyDeleteThe best I think we can hope for is that we'll come back a little smarter.
The sad fact is, we've done all this before. We've done it several times, in fact. I feel like I'm in a bad imitation of the new Battlestar Galactica sometimes. "As it was before, so shall it be again". Argh.
I'm tired of reading people who are paid to write nonsense like this. All you need to know what's been going on here is to read about the last four big financial crashes. The only people who think things like terrorism and this are unprecedented and earth-shattering are the people who think history started thirty years ago.
Problem IS, too many (most?) Americans just don't fucking GET it. I see today that Ford is quacking away about the NEW F-150. What bullshit. Same fucking F-150 as goddamned 1954! I live in a beach town and when there is a clam tide the roads are CLOGGED with these huge unnecessary vehicles.
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