Villager Logic

Donahue (4.00 / 2)

This column actually makes more sense than most of her writing. I think she makes a decent point about American resetting their economic expectations and living within their means.

Hopefully this deep recession will ajust economic behavior in the future. Higher savings rates, less debt, responsible spending, etc.

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by: Scoonie @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 12:30:02 PM CDT

I get the point she's making, (4.00 / 3)

and it's the same one I see in that dopey All-State ad about being happy to live in our means.

But what drives me up a wall is this assumption that we are all living this Cape Cod life where the recession is forcing us to have 2 SUVS instead of 3.

Many hardworking Americans already find happiness in simple things, but our enjoyment in this simplicity is increasingly harrassed by the economic meltdown provided by the wealthy and irresponsible at the top.

My happiness is decreased during this time, because the simple life I have carved out for myself, despite lousy economic policy from Reagan onward, is threatened by this recession.

When you don't have much consumer waste to pare down in the first place, bad economic times just... kinda suck.

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by: Dean Barker @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 14:47:55 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

It all depends on your prejudice. If your prejudice is that people, (0.00 / 0)

other than yourself, haven't deserved the bounties they enjoy, then the reduction of those bounties looks virtuous.

On the other hand, if your prejudice leads you to see that lots of very modest people are working very hard for almost no reward and increasingly less security, then the accumulation of wealth by one percent looks like theft.

The belief in original sin has real world consequences.

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by: hannah @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 16:01:53 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

When your means have been consistently reduced over three (0.00 / 0)

decades by those who control the money supply, then simple sustenance, much less supporting the next generation is no longer possible.

I'm not complaining, but there is something out of whack when a university professor can teach the next generation for 40 years and retire at age 65 with a top salary of $45,000--20% of it deducted as tax.  There is something out of whack when the combination of a state pension and social security adds up to more income, tax-free.   There is something out of whack when individuals in their reproductive years are forced to scrimp and save and then, when the kids have left the nest, they get a bonus.

It would make sense, if there were some evidence that suffering man-made and natural adversity actually makes humans stronger and more productive--if "natural selection" operated on the individual level.  That our infant mortality rates are increasing and average longevity is decreasing suggests that deprivation is not beneficial, from a societal perspective.  

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by: hannah @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 16:19:29 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

The ownership society (4.00 / 1)

We thought we owned Manhattan, and no one ever proved us wrong. Now that the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s' delusion of infinite economic growth has stopped, I feel that community spirit of the 70s again.

Interesting rhetorical trick there; snobbery cast as community spirit.

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by: JimC @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 12:44:57 PM CDT

The woman certainly has a way with (4.00 / 2)

empirical evidence.

Of course, that "way" is to completely jettison it as a concept, but she is consistent at least.

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by: Laura Clawson @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 13:00:06 PM CDT