Feb 15th Post

A question, posed to me in a blog assignment was “Given the US economy is it patriotic to Shop”? Well in my biased opinion it is neither patriotic to, or not too. It seems the common belief that both the marketing companies as well as the stock holders would want you to believe that the way to help an economy out of debt would be to shop. Bull Sh!t I say! The shopping that they expect us to do will not benefit the general public like they want you to believe. Let’s take one of the more recent economic endeavors that encouraged folks to shop.
First, How about “Cash For Clunkers” that program was supposed to help stimulate the US economy be allowing us citizens to keep their manufacturing jobs, and promote US. based manufacturing companies, and of course clean up the air. That would seem to be not so much according to this report from ABC News. The cars that were on the promotion were already built and were essentially over stocked inventory. The only people that really benefited from this program were the Auto Manufacturers, the car dealers and the lending financial institutions. None of the US manufacturing jobs were saved by this promotion. Unless you work for one of these three fields or have stock in any of them then you saw no benefit from this program.
There is also the Economic Trends and their report by the Federal Reserve Bank Of Cleveland that pretty much states, by spending we are helping the economy. This report suggests that indeed we should spend our money as fast as we can. The more you make the more useless stuff you should buy. There is always something at Wal-Mart you cannot live without!
But wait… If that spending really stimulated the US economy you know I would be all for it. So I ask; where does all that money go? You get paid; the IRS takes its unfair amount out to support pork barrel spending. The local state takes its cut, and then there are taxes on what you buy at the store, but where does the money you spend go? Have a look, Check this out. If 90% of our goods are manufactured in China, where do you think 90% of every dollar we spend go? CHINA!
So, back to the question; is it patriotic to Shop? I guess that depends on what you are shopping for? If you are patriotic to China then I say YES! However, we live in a very materialistic society and of course with the economy so bad we all have to do what we can to get by, and that unfortunately leads us spending some of our money in stores like Wal-Mart. As much as I can, I try to by items that are stamped “Made in U.S.A.”! So I might be un-patriotic? Or because I choose not to spend my money frivolously just for the sake of spending at stores that stock their shelves with foreign goods I might be the patriarch of patriotism, you tell me…