reply to post by burdman30ott6
I think it is interesting that those polled would consider it that way.
Being told that things are pretty dire, and that the economy is struggling, and that people may lose jobs is a presentation of facts. As you pointed
out, if anything, we are being given less a clear view of the grimness of the situation by the media. (As evidenced by the early attempts by market
analysts to convince people to leave their money in and "ride it back up" when the market first began to plunge.)
Those who are saying that the media is "making it worse" by presenting facts, so that consumers can make rational decisions based upon these facts
about how they should or should not spend, seems incredibly odd to me. Flip it around and look at the alternative, the media lies to us, and tells us
everything is fine and people continue to spend as they normally would. How on Earth would that make anything better at all? It might shore up some
segments of the retail industry and associated manufacturing for a short time, but since it doesnt address the underlying reasons for the economic
collapse in the first place, it would be a horrible mistake for individual people to spend as usual. Homes would still be lost, jobs would still be
lost, the main difference is that individual people would be more in debt due to irrational spending while facing those issues.
If anything, the media should be more clear about the fact that we cannot simply "consume" our way out of this crisis. Clearly, people are somehow
deriving the idea that if only people would go to the mall and buy stuff, everything would be okay. This is not the case. We are not in this mess
because people were failing to consume. We are in this mess because for the last couple decades we have been undermining the American worker by
sending jobs overseas, and allowing corporations free reign to lend money to people at insane interest rates without checking to see if these people
can in fact afford to pay it back. We have been undermining the basis of our economy, the American taxpayer and consumer by cutting their throat,
(making it harder for them to find jobs that pay enough to support our consumerist lifestyle) and then bleeding them from every possible angle with
insane credit policies. And our "cure" for this bloodletting is bleeding them further by having tax dollars bail out the vampires that have bled
them too greedily in the first place, and then further cutting jobs.
The problem is that no one is really looking at the how and why this collapse happened in the first place. The housing crisis is a symptom, not a
cause. The cause is globalization and the slow but steady takeover of the American government by international business interests who dont give a
damn about the long term viability of either our country or even their own companies as long as they can grab a large chunk of change for themselves
before the whole thing collapses.
Spending more in the short run will make some small industries look better in the short run, and cause more trouble and inherent instability in the
long run. The cure is to let this mess continue to crumble, then to look seriously at the rubble and rebuild something sane and sustainable from it.
We have been letting sociopaths run our government, and our corporations, that is the problem. Propping up the insane system they created is NOT the
answer.
[edit on 2-1-2009 by Illusionsaregrander]