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Christianity Today, February (Web-only), 2009 |

It Takes More Than a Recession to End Consumption

Though it's no longer conspicuous, 'feel-good' buying lives on in the U.S.

Rob Moll | posted 2/12/2009 10:16AM

The recession has American families cleaning up their balance sheets. Households paid off nearly 1 percent of their debt in the third quarter of this fiscal year. For the year, household debt shrunk nearly ...

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Jason

Posted: February 17, 2009 12:34 AM

I think that we have finally reached a situation where the US is made to realise that all the hubris which has lasted for decades is misplaced. The horrific war in Iraq based on "weapons of mass destruction", the catastrophy that is Gaza which would not have happened without US complicity, the mess that is Afghanistan, the world-wide influence of putrid foul-mouthed Hollywood, the rewarding of Wall Street executives with bonuses paid by taxpayers for terrible world-impacting irresponsibility, the impunity of US leaders for crimes such as the firebombing of Japan and Germany followed by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Roosevelt's handing over to Stalin of Poland and Eastern Europe after WW2 after the issue of Poland's freedom had been the cause of the war, the joyful acceptance of Uncle Joe Stalin as ally after he was responsible for the deaths of at least 6 million of his own people in 1932-3, the list goes on and on.. Yahweh is righteous, and will not let this evil continue unpunished.

Chip Watkins

Posted: February 15, 2009 6:09 PM


Your comparison of men's and women's spending on clothes is legalistic, in that statistics cannot reveal whether the spending is wise, prudent, or in accord with God's will.

H. D. Schmidt

Posted: February 13, 2009 10:57 PM

An economy driven by comsuption, in time, is a good as termites are for a wooden structure! Coined by H. D. Schmidt, the writer of it. It is the most condemned system by the very Scripture. It is satanic in principle because, materialism becomes even the God of Christianity. The Scripture labels it as the love of money! No wonder that Christianity seems to be in decline in the Western world, while hungry people in the world now number over 1 billion! America even spends over 40 billion a year on dogs and pets, mostly spend on gadgets etc., etc., etc.

allantlg

Posted: February 12, 2009 5:56 PM

First, as a person who is involved in the financial markets on a daily basis, I have to reject that we are in a "recession". This is no less than a complete restructuring of the global economic system. The previous concepts of what is of intrinsic value(example: except for the land and location a house is a depreciating asset), consumer vs. saving society(example: cult of celebrity and fashion as opposed to a few items of quality with changing accessories) , multi-generational wealth(example: embracing the European, Asian, Middle East concepts in of growing assets in a family), demographics(example: the new global Middle Class will be Brazil, Russia, India and China), global banking and financial institutions, digitized capital, globalization is - and will continue - to change everything. We are entering a new age that will be more disruptive than the Depression . . . and global in nature. We have only begun to see the beginnings!

JohnS

Posted: February 12, 2009 3:37 PM

The problem we have is that we've accepted as economically viable a "consumer" economy where we ship all the jobs that actually make or do things to other countries, import back those goods and services and "consume" them here and assume we can live on our national credit card forever. NO DOUBT we need to consume a little less and save a little more, but lets not kid ourselves, it's not the consuming that is killing us, it's the LACK of producing. Walmart does a booming business selling us things made in China while you call Bangalore for help with your I-pod. It's crazy. And it's not some sort of moral crisis, at least not on the individual level, it's a crisis of leadership, both in the government and in our major corporations that have allowed this to happen. Hopefully this recession will at least wake us up to the need to re-invigorate the manufacturing base of this country so when we consume at least we'll be buying stuff we made and not putting it on the Chinese tab...

HeavyMental

Posted: February 12, 2009 3:24 PM


Another reason for men to spend "only" 8 percent less is that many companies are now demanding a return to more professional/less casual styles of clothing. In other words, more suits and fewer pairs of Dockers. In this situation, men can't afford not to buy the clothing that might help them keep their jobs.

CoffeeZombie

Posted: February 12, 2009 1:14 PM

Just a thought on the men vs women apparel numbers: It's possible that the reason the numbers are different is that men on average had been spending less on "unnecessary" apparel even before the recession than women. In other words, it may be that both are cutting apparel purchases down to the minimum, but women just had further to go than men. Obviously, this is speculation, but just saying that women spent 18% less and men spent 8% less doesn't necessarily justify the statement that men are "still spending on themselves." Aside from that, yes, old habits die hard. As my wife has pointed out, the current recession will probably be hardest on those of us too young to remember the late '70's.

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