The Joneses win: the why of weak consumer spending

[Panich52]

The Morning Memo

A new report on consumer spending shows that consumers are not spending. Economists thought that the savings from cheaper gasoline — hundreds of dollars a year for most — would be hauled to the stores. But non-gasoline retail spending didn’t budge last month, flat after falling a bit in December, according to the Commerce Department.

The strengthening job market and expected wage gains should also be making American shoppers feel more exuberant, but no. That’s a concern in a country where consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of the economy.

Here’s my explanation for what’s happening. There’s been a growing aversion to the shopping way of life. There’s a sense that the consumer culture has been a con job, epitomized by the sucker punch of last decade’s real estate bubble (and attendant mortgage scams).

There’s also a feeling that one traditional motive for buying stuff — the competitive race to “keep up with the Joneses” — is futile. The famous 1 percent are pulling away so fast from the other 99 percent that there’s no point in trying. Even the “merely affluent” can’t compete.

More:
http://link.nationalmemo.com/5390d3d3dd52b8141a0aafe52ajpg.6acu/VOM17kmOMah5-drMA7859
..

[Phentex]

1. I am not seeing the end of the mansion here just yet...

it is still something I will never understand no matter how much money a person has.

But I think there's some truth to the general idea that people started making do with less in the downturn of the economy and perhaps figured out they just didn't need more stuff.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. Besides, who's watching?

Keeping up with the Joneses assumes that somebody is watching you and what kind of car you drive and what kind of house you live in, and judging you. Who cares? People who worry about what other people think are insecure.

When my grandmother would whine about what other people think, my dad had the perfect comeback: Most people are so self-centered that they worry about what you think of them. They're not watching you.

And then she looked like "The last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it."

Logic will render some people speechless every time.

Everyone is gonna die someday and everyone only gets 24 hours to a day. So impressing other people is futile. I would never judge somebody on what kind of car they drive, for example.

[KG]

3. i'm sure many, like me, no longer believe in the economy. i'm back to working a 'real' job

after scraping by in recession. but i have no confidence that what ever 'recovery' this economy presently experiencing now is real and will be sustained.

i've got back to a no/low debt level, but i have no confidence in any kind of economic stability, on a personal, national or global level. so i'm not going to go into debt to buy anything except maybe a vehicle

[DonCoquixote]

4. as much as TV has number the American mind

it has also been a sort of cure. You can go to Bravo TV, and, in a way that the best leftist tv cannot provide, you can see the myth of the super rich as job creators get DEMOLISHED. You will see people who are the high one percent look and act like complete idiots, and anytime they are throwing a party or vacation, worth more than three times your annual income, you will see someone start a fight or resume a vice or do something so stupid you realize you would not hire this person to mow your lawn.

Honestly, glamour may have been somethign in the Black and White TV days, but who the hell wants to spend a lot to live like Kim Kardashian. As bad as the 80's were (and they WERE very bad) at least Madonna had SOME talent. Now, we have celebrity trash that makes more than the talented, and you also have people with talent that realize that if they tried selling their talent, they would be hated. Compare a raven-haired girl named Stefani Germanotti who was performing Mozart since she was six to her much more famous later life as "Lady Gaga." You will weep to see talent wasted because the formula in pop is to either imitate Madonna (which is why Beyonce and Miley, who both have damned good sets of vocal chords, sing crap) or do this fake "Ironic" crap that has been so debunked it is not even ...ironic...

and what has all of that have to do with comsumer spending, simple, we see the wizard behind the curtain.

[el_bryanto]

5. I guess I don't really understand this mentality - I haven't stopped shopping

But I pretty much always shopped for the same kinds of stuff - books, music, dvds, cooking gear, and the like.

I guess I'll say that I am buying less DVDs as they take up space and most things are available on Netflix and the like. Same with Books and Comic Books (Amazon Kindle (I know it's evil) and Comixology). Digital media is generally better.

But I never really bought much to keep up with other people - if I buy something it's because I want to enjoy it. I can't imagine not wanting to buy a new album no matter how much or how little money I have, for example.

Bryant

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Shopocalypse Song - Rev. Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir