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CONSUMERS ARE DONE WITH CONSUMING
Posted by: Darrell Castle
January 14, 2010
Topic: Bankruptcy
The Webster's Dictionary definition of consume is; to reduce to nothing; to burn up; to squander; to waste away slowly; to be exhausted. The December 2009 retail sales figures as reported by the Associated Press tell us that the American people are through, or at least a bit tired of consuming. Hopefully, we are also tired of being referred to as "consumers." In order for the American economy to recover, we the American "consumers" must go back to squandering money that we don't have and we seem rather hesitant to do that. "Consumer spending is considered critical to any sustained economic revival since consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of total economic activity." Did you hear that? The American economy is 70 percent dependent on whether or not we are willing to return to a lifestyle of squandering money we don't have and will never earn? I must point out that people and nations do not become wealthy by consuming, they become wealthy by producing and by saving.
"Retail sales fell in December as demand for autos, clothing and appliances all slipped, a disappointing finish to a year in which sales had the largest drop on record. The weakness in consumer demand highlighted the formidable hurdles facing the economy as it struggles to recover from the deepest recession in seven decades. " For December, sales of autos dropped by 0.8 percent, specialty clothing 0.6 percent, big retailers such as Wal-Mart 0.8 percent, electronics and appliances 2.6 percent, and hardware 0.4 percent.
Well, people can't or won't "consume" all the foreign merchandise being shipped to America if they don't have jobs and jobs are harder to come by these days than retail sales. "In the jobs report, the Labor Department said new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 444,000. Wall Street economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected an increase of only 3,000." New claims for unemployment insurance are considered a gauge of employers' willingness to hire new workers. The conclusion then is that not many people will hire workers to sell imported things that few people have the money or inclination to buy and therefore, this consumer based economy is in serious trouble.
I hear the government is working on a new economic stimulus for this year so I guess since we "consumers" aren't squandering our money fast enough; the government must step in and squander it for us. My advice: get out of debt as quickly as possible.
