Dear Friends,
It seems to me, instead of promoting a consumption based society, we as a people should make the conscious decision to advocate for a creative mindset instead. There are many advocates that say consumption should be favored over invention. The entire world economic paradigm today is based on American and European consumption. Others play a beggar thy neighbor game to feed that black hole of demand. Demand for the garish to the sublime and everything in between. Banks make out under this paradigm. They lend at usury rates to poor people, so they can buy an eight hundred dollar I phone, and get a five hundred dollar tribal tattoo across their face, that will insure their unemployability for the rest of their lives… a great investment by any standard… Or is it?
While consumption is required to keep the wheels of our economy turning, it shouldn’t be the focus of people’s lives. No different than should drugs, food, sex or gambling be the focus of someone’s life. Even becoming enthralled with water, and drinking it constantly, making sure it is the most pure it can be, will lead to problems. We need to consume, and I am not saying it is bad, only that consuming as a mode of being, is bad. Why not consume, after all many of us have the wealth, and in a roundabout way it does help the economy. Buying food keeps farmers in business and purchasing cars keeps the car manufacturers going. Buying the means of production however, provides much more than a meal, it can provide a lifetime of meals. So go ahead and consume, but use it as a tool, not a distraction.
Consumption as a way of life benefits some powerful interests. As I mentioned before, banks are the primary recipient of the largess of our consumption. They create the money we need to purchase all those things, that will be sold in a yard sale for pennies on the dollar a few years down the road. After we have spent a small fortune in storage locker fees to hold onto it. To add insult to injury, some states are even talking about taxing those pennies on the dollar! The government even encourages consumption by holding interest rates unnaturally low. Banks are protected as an industry by a quasi governmental agency, (the FED), set up to funnel taxpayer dollars into their coffers. Clearly, the elite will not find any favor with our attempt to move to a productive mindset.
Production can also be a way of enjoyably passing the time, but instead of consuming time and money leaving one empty, driving ever more consumption, like crack cocaine. Invention produces both money and the self satisfaction that comes from having made something. Even something as foolish as a PVC potato cannon. It yields something of greater value than the inputted materials, but the production of it, taking credit for producing it and shooting potatoes out of it, are all extremely fun. From fashioning prose to molding clay, the life that produces rather than consumes or destroys, is one that improves the lot of mankind, and is fulfilled doing it. So it is in all of our best interests to teach our children to enjoy producing things, rather than consuming them.
I am a libertarian, I don’t care what you do, consume all you want or produce all you want… as long as you are not infringing on the Rights of another. It is your choice as a sovereign human being. Moreover, I am NOT advocating for governmental action to change my fellow man in any way. I am advocating to my fellow man… to willfully change from consuming to producing. Find something you enjoy. Tie flies, weave textiles, machine new toys, burn out a 3D printer, draw, and wear out the knees of dozens of pairs of pants, find a passion and put your time to building, making, and creating it. Never change because someone orders you to, only change when you are persuaded by rational discourse and argument, then only once you are convinced it will benefit you. So… what do you think?
Sincerely,
John Pepin
