Produce & Consume & Produce & Consume

Like every other company, we’re cutting back and laying off, because our customers aren’t buying as many of our machines, because consumers out there aren’t buying as many iPods and laptops and cameras and everything else that uses the computer chips that go through our ion implanters. It’s an illustration of the most basic view of what our Economy is: The Economy is people buying stuff that other people make. When you look at it that way, it may be a reasonable idea to giving people money to stimulate the buying, to lower taxes so we have more money to spend. Uncertain about the future, scared of terrorist attack? Go shopping - Keep America Rolling! Snarky as that sounds, seems an element of truth to it. Ok I know that the shopping per se is not what we ridicule, it’s the fact that people and our government are spending way more money than we earn, that’s asinine. But the more we cut back on spending the less stuff will get made, the less people will have jobs making stuff. And if you complain about the American overconsumerist lifestyle – buy no more than what you need, don’t replace something unless it’s broken, get back to the simple pleasures that don’t require the latest gadget or fashion - ok if we try to purchase the barest minimum of stuff, that’s a lot fewer jobs out there for other people. So…I dunno. Where do we go from here, what is the best balance to maintain? People do need jobs, which means they have to supply a good or service to someone else, which means people have to buy stuff. It kinda goes round and round, and I don’t know how anyone is supposed to think what is best way for a society to work – is it healthiest to have 0% unemployment? 5%? 10% ? How much should you save, how much should you spend, what are we making, and who really needs all this stuff? What are we really doing with our lives?