It is a sign of the times when Sacha Taylor, a fixture on the charity circuit in this gala-happy city, digs out a 10-year-old dress to wear to a recent society party.
Or when Jennifer Riley, a corporate lawyer, starts patronizing restaurants that take coupons.
Or when Ethel Knox, the wife of a pediatrician, cleans out her home and her storage unit, gives away an old car to a needy friend and cancels the family Christmas. �I just feel so decadent with all the stuff I�ve got,� she explained.
In just the seven months since the stock market began to plummet, the recession has aimed its death ray not just at the credit market, the Dow and Detroit, but at the very ethos of conspicuous consumption. Even those with a regular income are reassessing their spending habits, perhaps for the long term. They are shopping their closets, downscaling their vacations and holding off on trading in their cars. If the race to have the latest fashions and gadgets was like an endless, ever-faster video game, then someone has pushed the reset button.
�I think this economy was a good way to cure my compulsive shopping habit,� Maxine Frankel, 59, a high school teacher from Skokie, Ill., said as she longingly stroked a diaphanous black shawl at a shop in the nearby Chicago suburb of Glenview. �It�s kind of funny, but I feel much more satisfied with the things money can�t buy, like the well-being of my family. I�m just not seeking happiness from material things anymore.�
To many, the adjustment feels less like a temporary, emergency response than a permanent recalibration, one they view in terms of ethics rather than expediency.
�It�s kind of like we all went overboard,� said Ms. Taylor, 33. �And we�re trying to get back to where we should have been.�
Conspicuous consumption must really go in order to develop a sustainable economy and planetary health. As long as we are attached and believe that endless consumption and expansionism ideology are required we will face the economic turmoil again and again that we face today.
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Conspicuous consumption must really go in order to develop a sustainable economy and planetary health. As long as we are attached and believe that endless consumption and expansionism ideology are required we will face the economic turmoil again and again that we face today.
Whilst these sentiments are admirable long term goals,it will be catastrophic to attempt to restrict spending at the present moment. If everbody stopped spending the so called 'stimulus package' will be a waste of time and money(your tax money). It will be just poured out to companies that will go bankrupt and our children and grandchildren will be paying for these stimulus measures for generations to come. The massive increases in unemployment would also mean large increases in social security and civilian unrest as well as further increases in taxes.
Until people start losing their fear of what is happening to the economy and start spending again no amount of stimulus packages will work IMO.
You are absolutely right, liverock, that's a dilemma in a recession. It's normal that people will cut their spending when they are worried about the future.
Heres the latest, your tax dollars paying for the stimulus package for the construction industry may be paying the wages of 300,000 illegal workers due to the Democrat government cancelling the mandatory vetting procedure for employers before hiring construction workers.
An estimated 300,000 construction jobs paid for by the stimulus plan will go to illegal workers after leading Democrats removed a provision requiring verification of citizenship, a leading immigration expert tells Newsmax.
The House version of the $787 billion stimulus bill required verification of the legal residency of anyone put to work by its spending. But that provision was removed from the bill before members of Congress met to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill.
Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), tells Newsmax the verification provision was deleted by Democratic leaders even before the bill reached the conference committee, where differences between House and Senate legislation are normally ironed out.
�When it got to conference, the top people -- not just the conference members, but the top people: Reid, Pelosi, and Obama -- chose to kill the provision and not include it,� Camarota says. �This was a purposeful decision.�
The provision would have required that workers� names to be vetted through the Internet-based E-Verify system. E-Verify, a joint project of the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration, gives employers a quick means of verifying employee eligibility.
�E-Verify is our most effective tool for preventing illegal immigrants from getting jobs, and they chose not to use it,� says Camarota.
The estimate of 300,000 construction jobs is based on U.S. Census and other studies showing that approximately 15 percent of U.S. construction workers are illegal immigrants.
Construction projects funded by the stimulus bill are expected to generate 2 million jobs. Assuming 15 percent of those workers are illegal, 300,000 illegal aliens would be employed. The actual number could be higher, however, because many of the projects are in states with high immigrant populations, such as Texas, California, and Florida.
The CIS estimates are accepted by the conservative Heritage Foundation, and even groups that advocate on behalf of illegals don�t quibble with them much. One activist for illegals, however, told USA Today that the CIS report amounts to �fear tactics.�
Some sources suggest Democrats opened up stimulus money to illegals to placate activists who may have to wait for the outright amnesty they covet. Others say it reflects the influence of pro-business interests who want a vast workforce of reasonably priced labor.
Whatever the motivation, Camarota says it�s no accident the verification measure was stripped out. �This was not just a careless oversight that can sometimes happen in the legislative process,� he says.
One economic concern generated by the CIS report: A significant portion of illegal workers� income is shipped out of the United States to support their families. That money would no longer be available to support economic activity in the United States.
The Council on Foreign Relations, for example, estimates that in 2004 Mexican nationals pumped $22.2 billion back into Mexico�s economy via remittances sent back home. How well U.S. taxpayers tolerate the export of stimulus dollars given the rapidly rising unemployment at home remains to be seen.
�In general construction jobs are reasonably good paying jobs for working class people, and we�re talking about perhaps 300,000 of them going to people who aren�t supposed to be even in the country,�
Camarota says. �And this is money coming from taxpayers. The whole point of the stimulus is to put Americans back to work. And by not including E-Verify, it�s a terrible slap in the face to U.S. construction workers, who are currently experiencing a 10 percent, sometimes even 15 percent unemployment rate.�
Before leaving office, former President Bush signed an executive order requiring all federal contractors to submit employees� names to E-verify. President Obama has delayed implementation of that directive until at least May 21.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has filed a lawsuit to prevent making the use of E-Verify mandatory. The organization says Congress approved it strictly as a voluntary initiative.
Conspicuous Consumption, a Casualty of Recession
Hybrid Mode
