If every person in this country would commit to spending $1, $5, $10 or more weekly (depending on one's financial abilities) over and above one's usually spending, we could turn the recession around. Consumer spending is about two-thirds of the US economy. This extra bit of spending would stimulate job growth. It would improve consumer confidence. It would empower us to take control. (Remember when, after 9/11, George Bush said "Go shopping!")
There are two important caveats to this idea. First, this money must be additional dollars. Dollars that you would not be spending except for this purpose. So just because you spent a lot of money and had your house sided, this doesn't count if you were going to side your house anyway. You have to find something else that is extra to spend the money on, but don't go crazy and charge up the credit cards. Make sure it is an amount you can afford weekly. We need an extended period of stimulus. (Only participate in this project if you can afford to do so. If you can't pay your rent this month, don't participate, just pass along the idea to others.)
Second, the best purchases are those products that are made in the US. This will help our trade deficit as well as stimulate US job growth more effectively.
I found my first $5 purchase yesterday. I bought a package of "Evert-Fresh Green Bags" made in the USA. These bags help to keep vegetables fresher longer. I have never tried them before, but they sound like a good idea. Please note that I have no ties, financial or otherwise, to this product or company. This is not an advertisement. It's just an example of something I found to start my commitment to our economy. So, will you pass this idea along? And what is your first purchase going to be? Post ideas about good extra US purchases!
Comments
If every person in this country would commit to spending $1, $5, $10 or more weekly (depending on one's financial abilities) over and above one's usually spending, we could turn the recession around.
My Solution has been to increase the amount that I tip up to 20 - 25%. I figure that it probably find it's way to people who need it (assuming that rich people are not waiting tables). Second, it might actually increase service! While I admit this reason is completely self-serving, it is probably the most appealing to the Right-wingers here. I've even written "+ recession tip" on the receipt, and would encourage others too!
That being said, I wonder about the effect. I am afraid the magnitude just does not compare to what is needed, and what would be contained in another stimulus bill or a jobs bill. In addition, although additional spending is necessary, it is not sufficient. What is really needed is SMART spending. For example, you can spend a lot of money on your house, but only some of them actually increase it's value. This is one of the reason's why INFRASTRUCTURE is a good investment!
Just don't spend it on a foreign product. That stimulates a foreign economy..
My Bush stimulous check some years ago stimulated the Chinese economy. I needed a new computer...my old one kept crashing.
My U.S. brand computer was made in Chinese...creating Chinese jobs to produce, it., warehouse it , and ship it..
It helped maintain a U.S. low-wage job to sell it to me.,,,.and the profits quickly went to the Walton family where they were undoubtably disappeared into financial paper.
Buy U.S. products...at a local mom and pop shop. to keep money circulating as long as possible. Once it hits the "big boy's" pockets, it disappears into Wall Street.
The money supply on Main Street is shrinking at the rate of 6% a year...the money on Wall Street is expanding.
.Antifascist posted an interesting thread on that.
Part of that sucking sound you hear isn't just jobs being outsourced...it's the sucking of the nation's money supply into financial paper.at an accelerating rate.
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"
People aren't going to spend what they don't have. I think its called getting blood from a stone...
So much for the concept of trickle down economics. The USA with the most billionaires and millionaires per capita, is heading toward economic meltdown on a grand scale.
You can't force people to spend money on needless crap, when they are don't have a job, can't pay the mortgage and aren't sure if they will have a home next month.
When we had high tax rates on the wealthy...income was re-distributed to keep an economy functioning well. We developed the largest, most prosperous middle class the world had ever seen.
High taxes could be avoided by making productive investment...developing new products, new business or by the expansion of an old business.
Excess income thrown into financial paper and not spent within the real economy was heavily taxed...and spent within the real economy.
However, what works was deemed unfair. Personally, I think it was better than a meltdown.
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"
I've made a real effort to both buy U.S. made products (sometimes possible) and to shop at local stores (usually possible). I appreciate knowing the owner is in the store, and if he or she makes a little money off me, the profits are more likely to stay local. For things like clothes, this has meant fewer, but nicer, items, which is OK. Same with a guitar I bought. A chinese knockoff at Guitar Center would have been fine, and half as expensive, but I got one I'll keep forever instead of an entry model that I'd have wanted to replace in a couple of years.
I'm not sure an effort to increase our weekly spending is worthwhile. I don't see any chance that spending comes around before wages do. We need jobs, and higher pay for average workers. When that happens, people will glady spend.