What would happen to the American economy if the majority of us went minimalist?

[Donald Polish]

An Interesting theme as I see...
I found a statistic on MoneyWatch.com about how roughly 70% of the American economy is based on consumer spending. That number is staggering and honestly, frightening.

This question may sound silly but I don't know the answer to it - are we harming the economy by getting rid of excess possessions and choosing to not spend our money on collecting more junk? If consumer spending were to radically drop below "normal" levels, would the economy crash?
How do we depend on consumerism? Was this the main idea of american dream?

 

[Sonny Clark]

An Interesting theme as I see...
I found a statistic on MoneyWatch.com about how roughly 70% of the American economy is based on consumer spending. That number is staggering and honestly, frightening.

This question may sound silly but I don't know the answer to it - are we harming the economy by getting rid of excess possessions and choosing to not spend our money on collecting more junk? If consumer spending were to radically drop below "normal" levels, would the economy crash?
How do we depend on consumerism? Was this the main idea of american dream?

It's called "cash flow". In other words, consumers buy goods and services, which in turn, encourages more goods and sevices, which supplies the needs and wants of the consumer. Then, the cycle starts over with more buying and more producing. The cash continues to flow in a circle from consumer to supplier, then back to the consumer, which encourages more production to supply the demands of consumers. Spendable income in the pockets of consumers supports the retail markets, services, and generates tax revenue. If that chain is disrupted or broken, then the lack of demand causes unemployment, lost tax revenue, and businesses and corporations stop spending capital on expansion, R&D, and labor.

This is exactly what we're seeing and experiencing now, and have seen and experienced for many decades now. Consumers are making less money, businesses are producing more with less employees, innovation, technology, and automation has replaced workers, we're off-shore out-sourcing labor, and we've become dependent on cheap foreign made goods. So, the net results are fewer self-supporting living wage jobs, lost industires, lower tax revenue, loss of the Middle Class, the creation of a poor and dependent citizenry, lost skills that were once handed down through many generations, and government debt acting as the only catalyst keeping our economy afloat.

The consumers will continue to spend, buy necessities and some "wants" to go with the many "needs", but overall, spending will be down, as it has been for a long time now. Plants and factories aren't popping up all across this nation as they did back in the 50's, 60's, and early 70's. And, our work force is steadily growing. If we were to take away all of the money that those receiving some form of government assistance are spending, yes, we'd be devasted economiclly. The wealthy can not support the economy alone. It takes all of us working, paying taxes, and buying goods and services to adequately support our economy. We can'y depend on government debt to keep us afloat forever.

A positive cash flow, within our own economy, is vital to a healthy and stable economic environment. But, when consumers are buying foreign made goods, a lot of the cash flow is to foreign economies. The term "Global Economy" basically means "equalization to the lowest level". In other words, we're lowering our wages and our standard of living in order to attempt being competitive in the world market place. At the present rate of socioeconomic decline in this country, it won't be too many more years before we reach economic equalization with many of our trading partners. Already we're seeing China become an economic super power. Their share of the global market place is amazing, and is probably already ahead of the U.S. and Europe.

If consumer spending were to suddenly decrease to a drip and dribble, the economy probably couldn't recover fast enough to prevent chaos here and abroad. Remember, the global economy is co-dependent, one nation to another. If one stumps their toe, all feel the pain. This dependency happened through unrestricted and open trade, unfair, unjust, and one-sided foreign trade agreements and policies, and economies that could produce goods cheaper than anyone else flooding global markets. Now, the least little hiccup in consumer spending causes a domino effect across the entire economy. We saw it during the recession/depression, and we're still feeling the adverse effects even today. The life-blood of any economy is consumer spending. Without a positive cash flow within an economy, the economy soon becomes dependent on outside sources in order to prevent economic collapse. Thus the enormous amount of government debt required at this time just to keep our heads above water.

 

[Jomama]

You nailed it, our economy is fully dependent on wanton consumerism

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

You nailed it, our economy is fully dependent on wanton consumerism

dear, being a consumer is far better than not being one and dying. you write total gibberish and think you are making great sense.

Do you understand?

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

dear, being a consumer is far better than not being one and dying. you write total gibberish and think you are making great sense.

Do you understand?

So if you stop consuming beyond your means you die?

Special Ed, you write total gibberish and you think you are making great sense.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

What would happen to the American economy if the majority of us went minimalist?

In the short term we'd experience a recession as the economy would retract, but the market would eventually correct itself and we'd probably be better off in the long run.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

So if you stop consuming beyond your means you die?

if you stop consuming beyond your means you stop going further into debt. Making sense now??

 

[Mad Scientist]

No, America wasn't created so that we could be "Free to Consume".

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

No, America wasn't created so that we could be "Free to Consume".

dear, if you don't consume you die. America was a lot about freedom from taxation which I'm sure was related to the freedom to consume.

 

[Mad Scientist]

No, America wasn't created so that we could be "Free to Consume".

dear, if you don't consume you die. America was a lot about freedom from taxation which I'm sure was related to the freedom to consume.

Ok you're right. Consuming what you need is just fine.

Rampant Consumerism is the Unsustainable Economic Model.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Ok you're right. Consuming what you need is just fine.
[/QUOTE]

if a person needs a house on the Atlantic and Pacific ocean and a small jet is that ok?

 

[Mad Scientist]

if a person needs a house on the Atlantic and Pacific ocean and a small jet is that ok?

Of course it is, but I wouldn't consider that Rampant Consumerism.

Rampant Consumerism that I'm referring to usually results in a lifestyle similar to those people on "Hoarders". Just buying sh*t for the sake of buying it.

 

[Treeshepherd]

The US had a demand driven economy until the 1970's. If you built a hardware store in San Jose, CA in 1960, you would have seen the population of that city (and your customer base) quadruple over the next couple of decades. Things have stagnated and markets have become saturated. Rather than supplying growing demand, capitalism has become an issue of cultivating needs. The economy relies on the principle of if you build it and market the everliving shit out of it, they will buy it.

Our economy relies on government stimulus/debt and artificially cheap credit.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

So if you stop consuming beyond your means you die?

if you stop consuming beyond your means you stop going further into debt. Making sense now??

Of course, but why would that cause you to die?

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Of course, but why would that cause you to die?

if I said it would I'll pay you $10,000. Bet or run away with your liberal tail between your legs yet again!!

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Of course, but why would that cause you to die?

if I said it would I'll pay you $10,000. Bet or run away with your liberal tail between your legs yet again!!

The topic of this thread is over consumption, not consumption in general, so either you were inferring that if we stop over consuming we die or your interjection was irrelevant. Which is it.... dear?

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Of course, but why would that cause you to die?

if I said it would I'll pay you $10,000. Bet or run away with your liberal tail between your legs yet again!!

The topic of this thread is over consumption, not consumption in general, so either you were inferring that if we stop over consuming we die or your interjection was irrelevant. Which is it.... dear?

dear, why are you changing the subject. Do you take the bet or not??

 

[ralfy]

Related:

Triffin dilemma - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Related:

Triffin dilemma - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

dear we can all post 1 million related links. As a typical lib you cant say anything yourself can you?

 

[CultureCitizen]

An Interesting theme as I see...
I found a statistic on MoneyWatch.com about how roughly 70% of the American economy is based on consumer spending. That number is staggering and honestly, frightening.

This question may sound silly but I don't know the answer to it - are we harming the economy by getting rid of excess possessions and choosing to not spend our money on collecting more junk? If consumer spending were to radically drop below "normal" levels, would the economy crash?
How do we depend on consumerism? Was this the main idea of american dream?

That's a very interesting question !!!
As far as I am concerned, it doesn't have an easy answer. One option could be that the economy shifts towards an export model, so the share of consumer spending decreases. Other option would be that government spending in infrastructure and R&D increased .