From an NPR story this past week...NPR Reporter Guy: There are undoubtedly listeners tuning in to this conversation thinking to themselves, "why do I care about fashion when the economy is in a tailspin?" You've made the emotional, aesthetic argument. What's the economic argument?Seriously? Not shopping is not a moral act?
Sally Singer, editor Vogue: Fashion is an enormously important industry, not just in New York City, but across the country. There are a lot of people in America who make clothes, who sell clothes, and we want to keep those people working.
Not shopping is not a moral act at this time.
So many people think that their frugality is somehow a new moral front. Now that might be true if they were kind of excessive and bizarre in the years before, but when people don't shop, other people lose their jobs. That's a fact.
We've been told for decades that we need to save more money than we're saving, and now that people have been scared into doing just that, and you're telling us that is an immoral act?
I'm throwing the flag, folks.
3 comments:
I JUST HEARD THAT REPORT TOO!!!
I threw up in my mouth.
The fact that the NPR reporter let that slide really pissed me off.
Simply disgusting.
wv: jimpl- so easy "jim" could do it
They've been talking about that conundrum on MarketPlace for the past month or two...that the exact advice they've been giving us for years (save more) is the worst thing for the economy right now.
As one of their analysts reported, "What's good for personal finances is not good for the national economy"
and that's always been true - I remember discussing this in Econ 101 back in college after the '87 crash and everyone though that was the end of the world.
And...sorry Lakes and Chemguy and the other liberal readers out there...the Republicans were in charge, and no one was bailed out. People who lost money had to suck it up and make it again and people lost their jobs and businesses failed and the capitalist economy survived the blip for a few more decades.
If you study economies of scale, a drop in the market, like the one we're dealing with right now will right itself. But the government needs to back off so that it can.
It's just hard to say that to a DHL worker in Wilmington who has a family and now no means to support it...
The scary thing right now is the fact that we are no longer a country of production. We manufacture and export nothing of such value that we can use it to save our butts. There's nothing we make that EVERYONE else needs. If there was, we could just increase production and sell to the rest of the world. Trouble is, they can pretty much make whatever we've got to offer...
It's not good times right now, folks.
Conservatives seem to forget that it was George W. Bush that started the bailouts with his treasury secretary's banking buddies who threw lavish parties and obtained enormous bonuses when their companies were losing money. Fox News is all over "The Road to Socialism", which they forget to mention it all started with President Clinton and was continued by George W. Bush and will be further implemented by President Obama. It is inevitable as we lose the middle class and the lower class keeps growing.
The sad thing for us is the upcoming tax decrease in our paychecks will be used to pay for the increased grocery prices. For the past month, my weekly grocery bill has been over $100 by 10-20 bucks consistently, where before it rarely was over $100. Anyone else notice there have been less coupons in the Sunday paper?
Post a Comment