Thursday 27 November 2003

Pic of the day: If you don't like to fork over the money, perhaps you should reconsider. (Screenshot from The Sims.)

Is shopping good?

For those of you who consider all mystical things to be a serious turn-off, we return to the economy with a seasonal entry!

If you live in the rich world (and most people with Internet access still do), you probably get a lot of catalogs and similar advertisement these days. Economists cheerfully predict that we will spend a lot of money in December, as usual. This is generally considered a good thing. The economy was beginning to cool down the last couple years, and would have fallen into a downright slump if not for the borrowing and spending of common people like you and me. Especially you, if you are American. And the restoration of the economy is still fragile, despite its astonishing speed burst this fall. If people don't shop to excess this season, the economy could still falter. This is generally considered a bad thing.

It is easy for an economist to just project changes, based on the system we already have. According to these models, more spending is the obvious way to get people back to work and thus to relieve poverty. But is this the only possible way to go? I don't think so. And I don't think it is reasonable that common people should need to dig themselves down in debt in order to fuel the fires of capitalism.

***

In the developing world there are many unmet needs. Real needs, not synthetic wants and desires created by advertising. People need more food or at least more varied food to stay healthy. People need more and better clothes and shoes. They need housing, they need clean water and safe heating. Under these conditions, economic growth is certainly a good thing. It is also a process that reinforces itself: Productivity increases along with living conditions. More people are employed to meet the needs of other people.

In our society it is not so obvious. There are relatively few poor people, and anyway they are not the ones business is interested in. These days, focus is on the middle-class and its ability to buy more luxury goods. There seems to be a broad consensus that if you are poor in a rich country, then you will always be poor. You can give money to the poor and they will spend it, which is a good thing for the economy. But the middle class will not only spend money, they will also work more and more so they can earn more and more and spend it, which is even better for the economy. But this depends on advertising that creates new desires in the middle class.

When our basic physical needs are met, other needs manifest that are less physical. People want to be accepted, and they want to express themselves. These are also basic human needs. The trick of modern capitalistic society is to redirect these needs into marketable goods and services. If you open your eyes and truly look at most modem advertising, you will see this. Social needs like popularity, friendship and romance are supported by goods and services. Even when the connection is very weak, advertising (especially on television) strives to make an association by showing the goods in social settings. The idea is that if you buy the goods, you will be accepted. If you don't buy the goods, you may be rejected.

If you look through this illusion, you will see Hell. For if your friends only love you for the clothes you wear or the car you drive or the gum you chew... then you are already annihilated. You are already worthless. Your soul is nothing. For this reason, if nothing else, I consider the advertising business more demonic than the mentally confused boys who try to burn down churches after listening to too much Black Metal music. To rebuild a ruined church is easier and faster than to rebuild a ruined soul. Besides, most people realize that it is just wrong to burn down things. They don't realize that it is just wrong to bind up people's self-respect in random merchandise. More's the pity.

***

The first question then, when you consider buying something, should be whether you really want it. If it is just because it is popular, then perhaps you could make a wiser investment elsewhere. I am sure that even when you have filtered away the things you don't really want or need, there will still be plenty left. Then there's the question about whether this thing is really worth what you will be paying for it. Not only in terms of money, although that is certainly important (and if you have to borrow, a good rule of thumb is to at least double the amount in your head). But what about the time it will take? How much attention does the thing need? How will it interfere with other interests or relationships you already have? There are many subtle prices to pay.

As you can see, it is at great personal cost that you run the hamster wheel that powers the economy. And who is it that profits from that? Is it really the jobless fellow, or is it more likely the CEO who earns 100 times as much as you and still does not hesitate to fire you if he believes he can squeeze your colleagues into working that much harder? Please, take charge of your own life! At the end, you are the one who will be held accountable for it anyway, at the very least by your own heart.