It's time for Americans, myself, included to go on a twelve-step program. For spending.
I think one old Reagan-omic myth has been forever shattered. The one that claimed de-regulation leads to better and healthier corporations and that resulting wealth would trickle down like honey to sweeten everybody's personal pot. Not only does the current Republican CEO Treasury Secretary now want some form of financial regulation on loans, but it'll take at least
thirty more years before the Darwinian/freemarket/laissezfaire BS comes back around to haunt workers and other humans. It takes about that long for Americans to forget every hard-learned lesson. It was almost thirty years from the end of Vietnam War to the start of the Iraq Invasion which was widely popular among the red-white-blue voters at the time. Seems few could remember why Vietnam was so unpopular.
Meanwhile, against a backdrop of endangered bears, Stearns not polar, we need to take
ourselves in hand. Get serious about growing up. How much more stuff do we need? While
corporate America is about to get several doses of Republican-flavored cod liver oil to clean out
its financial pipes, we Americans should be self-medicating. And I'm not talking about all
those feral pharmaceuticals running free in our drinking water.
Here's some first steps on the needed 12 step program.
1) Fast food is slow death. Just say no. Eat an apple.
2) Cancel the meeting. Do a conference call instead. Nobody likes those three-day
conferences anyway. Especially not in Las Vegas where there is no natural water supply and
all the food is flown in from Chile or Florida.
3) Buy a smaller one, a used one, or none at all. Consumption's an addiction not a competitive
sport.
4) Buy an antique not some knocked-together crud from Ikea. Recently I moved house and the two guys who hauled my stuff laughed about how flimsy modern furniture is. It falls apart in the moving van from road vibrations. They say they loved hauling my behemoth old oak desk and walnut cabinet. Real furniture has heft, they said. And it lasts, I added. And gives off no formaldehyde. The cabinet's already 170 years old and won't be in somebody's dumpster next week. You couldn't lift it that high anyway.
5) Don't ignore the politics of money. American economic policies or non-policies are driving
higher oil prices...here. Other countries are getting much less inflation in oil prices because
oil's priced in dollars. And if you've noticed, the dollar is doing a swan dive. So we pay more
for oil while Europe, China and other buyers get an easier ride. That same dollar droop is driving
up prices of other commodities. Gold, Corn, Soybeans. Platinum. Anything that uses raw
materials and/or energy wil get more expensive, from food to flannel. Every purchase you make is political.
6) You are a consumer, act like one. Don't let the hucksters con you into buying what you
don't need. Or supporting a system that sucks resources from the planet strictly for profit.
Canadian wood is shipped to China, made into kitchen cabinets, then shipped back to your local
dealer. You buy those cabinets you endorse that egregious waste of energy. China is no longer a communist country, it's morphed into a profit-driven authoritarian regime. Buy local whenever you can.
7) Know that the U.S. Farm Bill is as important in the global picture as the Defense Department.
American corn growers continue to get huge federal subsidies, compared to wind
or solar power generation. That has global repercussions. One example: raising more corn
here raises world soybean prices so the Brazilians are even more tempted to chop down the
Amazon forest to grow soybeans. American farm subsidies are as corn-rupt as our energy
"policies." Eschew corn syurup which includes nearly everything in the local grocery. Buy local
when you can. Nobody subsidizes potatoes or tomatoes, green beans or lettuce.
8) Back the growing opposition to plastic bags. Carry a cloth or re-used shopping bag.
9) Walk someplace sometime. Every choice you make is political.
10) Know that large parking lots are the work of the devil. The more parking available the more
pernicious the effects on the planet and our economy. Drive-up windows are a capitalist plot,
to get you to waste valuable, irreplaceable energy while pretending to save you time.
You and your trusted friends can easily come up with two more necessary steps. We have to get
cured, and we can't wait for health insurance to kick in or the free market system to offer us a
cure.