29 Comments so far

1. LeeAnnG March 21st, 2007 2:47 pm

   Because of the Bush administration’s various wars including the ill-conceived and ill-fated Iraq fiasco and the ongoing wars on terror and drugs, there is little left to ensure that all Americans have health care, superior education, alternative energy, or safety nets for the poor and elderly. Neglect of victims of natural disasters, prolonged illnesses, and other tragedies is rampant. We sacrifice alright, just not in traditional ways and not willingly.

   Excess is often compensation for or distraction from problems or losses. For example, a woman splurges on some new, outrageously expensive shoes to try to feel better after a relationship ends. Another person might buy a ticket to a high priced concert. Many people buy new furniture, tools, or appliances to alleviate depression. Shopping sprees are notorious mood boosters, at least temporarily. America is poverty stricken in the areas that matter the most - health, education, safety, and often social contact. Getting lots of “stuff” and living in extravagence tends to make us forget all that.

   Many people live in fear of losing their jobs, becoming sick, not being able to care for elderly parents, or not finding childcare. So they go into an alternate state of reality where they live for today. After all, tomorrow might not be quite so great.

   American spending and lack of control just might be about escape, rather than consumerism. And in the end it does not improve life, make the world a better place, or change anything. But to many Americans, it feels like a fairly substantial bandaid.

2. gladstone March 21st, 2007 4:54 pm

   So true… the problem with America today is that it’s just too soft from having everything it wants, from SUVs, cell phones, and iPods, to being able to ride their little bicycles wherever they want. Too much comfort, too many toys, not enough sacrifice = a soft America.

3. auspiciousbunny March 21st, 2007 6:00 pm

   It’s also true most of us, even the rich, live with a subliminal terror of poverty. There are always just enough of the uninsured, with unstable livelihood, without a backup plan, to keep the rest nervous. That is the clever backbone of the American brainwash.

4. montemerrick March 21st, 2007 7:48 pm

   commentary like this is why the boston globe is one of the best newspapers in the united states

   not that its much of a distinction

5. jp March 21st, 2007 8:01 pm

   And don’t foreget our leader’s words of comfort and direction after 9/11: go out and shop America. Does that say it all?

6. armybrat March 21st, 2007 9:44 pm

   There’s good reason to live in fear today - in a second, a catastrophic accident or illness can leave even the fairly-well-off destitute as insurance companies are paid to deny benefits, as is worker’s comp, and your pension and life-savings don’t last long with 24/7 care. Then you’re really in deep doo-doo - even worse than those returning vets, most of whom have families, veterans groups, public opinion, and advocates on their side. (I used to be an advocate, so I know how miserable the situation really is.) This is the real security Americans have given up - and all their illusions and fantasies won’t protect them from the bankruptcy of our society. Most are just one miss-step away from disaster, even in their fancy homes. (Social) Security for all would mean less fear - and far fewer enemies. Better to lead by example, gathering friends, than to rule as a bully, always fearing the knife-in-the-back. Depression-era Americans remember just how bad it can - and did - get.

7. Lobo Gris March 21st, 2007 10:22 pm

   Let’s see, Bush and the Neocons lie us into a premptive war of choice based on cooked intelligence and I’m supposed to flagellate myself, and destroy my house so that I can donate the lumber to the war effort. Bullsh*t. Sacrifice indicates support and I don’t now nor have I ever supported the war in Iraq.

   Mr. Jackson simply uses the war as an excuse to bash America and Americans because we have more. Trying to make us feel guilty because of it. As for me I’m not sorry that we Americans created a superior country that has created a middle class that has allowed it’s citizens to get ahead and to have more. Do I feel bad for people in the world that are less fortunate than myself? Yes. But I’m not responsible for the corruption and violence in their countries that has allowed their leaders to siphon off all the money and starve them to death.

   America didn’t just land in our laps from some luck of the draw or from some fortuitous fate. We paid for it with our lives and blood forged in Revolution.

   The sad thing for me is that we are finally succumbing to the same forces that have shaped the rest of the world. Soon we too will be like everyone else, with a few elite rich and a multitude of starving masses. Gee, what an improvement, to model ourselves on others failure rather than them modeling themselves on our success.

   Lobo Gris

8. Lobo Gris March 21st, 2007 10:28 pm

   Earlier I had posted that

   “You Want A New Direction? Here’s One”
   by Marcus Raskin

   was the worst article I have read on Common Dreams, but no this one has surpassed it.

   Lobo Gris

9. misanthrope March 22nd, 2007 1:23 am

   Lobo Gris

   “America didn’t just land in our laps from some luck of the draw or from some fortuitous fate. ”

   No, using all the tools of genocidal capitalism, we managed to steal this country from the Native Americans and turn an ecological paradise into an environmental disaster.

   The myth of American Exceptionalism cannot hide the ugly reality of over comsumption and personal greed in a world of finite resources.

10. Lobo Gris March 22nd, 2007 1:43 am

    #
    misanthrope March 22nd, 2007 1:23 am

    “No, using all the tools of genocidal capitalism, we managed to steal this country from the Native Americans and turn an ecological paradise into an environmental disaster.

    Lol, that’s a good one, exactly what is genocidal capitalism? And how was it used to steal the country from the Native Americans?

    The myth of American Exceptionalism cannot hide the ugly reality of over comsumption and personal greed in a world of finite resources.”

    Ah yes we should all give up all of our possessions, and go live in the woods naked. We wouldn’t want to kill any animals to provide food and clothing and deprive them of their rights.

    You should lead by example, shut down your computer and move tomorrow. That is if you are serious about what you say. We’re all right behind you.

    Your little diatribe omits one important factor, over population. A population that has exploded from 2 and 1/2 billion 50 years ago to over six billion today.

    Lobo Gris

11. Lobo Gris March 22nd, 2007 1:49 am

    misanthrope March 22nd, 2007 1:23 am

    Oh yeah, forgot, you forgot to explain just how giving up what we own and moving into the primeval forest to support an illegal war in Iraq will solve anything.

    Lobo Gris

12. Nanoo March 22nd, 2007 7:13 am

    I think people have gone overboard on home size. I wonder how they can possibly keep it clean, afford the heating or cooling bills and taxes. I think some people believe they are superior to others when they have all this stuff. Seems like a waste to have to buy the same shit time and again because the businesses purposely sell merchandise that has a short life span. Hard on the planet too.

13. Lobo Gris March 22nd, 2007 7:51 am

    Nanoo March 22nd, 2007 7:13 am

    “I think people have gone overboard on home size. I wonder how they can possibly keep it clean, afford the heating or cooling bills and taxes.”

    I would agree that home sizes are larger than what people often need. The reason is though because homes are considered an investment, oftn the only one families have, and in fact do generally increase in value over time. Like anything else the bigger the investment the bigger the return. I have seen a lot of people that have sold their houses in high value markets when they retire, move to where I live ,pay cash for a smaller house, and use the balance of sale to supplement their retirement ncome.

    Lobo Gris

14. Gail March 22nd, 2007 8:46 am

    Lobo Gris March 22nd, 2007 1:43 am

    “Your little diatribe omits one important factor, over population. A population that has exploded from 2 and 1/2 billion 50 years ago to over six billion today.”

    When capital creation by the gluttons on Wall Street and in other developed nations deliberately keep people in third world countries uneducated, ignorant and in a state of poverty, the world will continue to over-polulate.

    If religious beliefs were totally reponsible for this explosion, how do we explain the population decreases in developed countries where the majority are more educated and organized religion plays an important role in their lives?

    Capital creation through the destrucion of undeveloped countries is the reason we are always at war with one country or another and the reason why poverty and ignorance is still so prevalent worldwide, despite the trillions of tax dollars squandered over the past 50 to allegedly assist poor countries.

    One can only hope that the handlers of this systemic greed will change course before our country collapses.

15. Lobo Gris March 22nd, 2007 9:31 am

    Gail March 22nd, 2007 8:46 am

    When capital creation by the gluttons on Wall Street and in other developed nations deliberately keep people in third world countries uneducated, ignorant and in a state of poverty, the world will continue to over-polulate.

    You will have to explain further. I fail to see how capital creation deliberately keeps people in the third world uneducated, ignorant, and in a state of poverty. Corporations certainly keep people down by treating them as slaves where they hire them in third world countries. The sweat shops that were prevalent in our own country at the turn of the last century have returned but are out of sight there, but I don’t see the connection between that and capital creation on Wall Street.

    Lobo Gris

16. misanthrope March 22nd, 2007 10:38 am

    Lobo Gris

    There are so many connections that you don’t see. Your self congratulatory obstinance seems to keep you in a perpetual state of confusion:
    “Oh yeah, forgot, you forgot to explain just how giving up what we own and moving into the primeval forest to support an illegal war in Iraq will solve anything.”
    I neither said nor implied that, and personally would not wish to sacrifice a thing to support our obscene occupation of Iraq. Last time I checked, there was no “primeval forest” left in the United States.
    An alternative to the bloated all American lifestyle does not mean that “we should all give up all of our possessions, and go live in the woods naked.” Or do I have to explain further?

17. jp March 22nd, 2007 1:38 pm

    Lobo gris, Calm down, please. This is an important article that connects some important dots. American consumerism, fueled by capitalism’s imperative of endless growth (profit) over sustainability, and underwritten by American militarism abroad, brings about an enormous amount of suffering in the world. Witness Vietnam, witness Iraq.
    No, all the world’s problems cannot be traced to the US, but those that are (and they are many) must be acknowledged and we have to work together (my fantasy, I suppose) to make ammends and to prevent these actions in the future. It’s not about “blame America first,” but it’s about facing up to our responsibilities, given our economic and military power. We can and do a lot of harm in the world that we are insulated from. We have the power to do a lot of good.

18. panamahead March 22nd, 2007 1:51 pm

    Let not twist the authors point.

    The point he’s making is that Americans are more focused and worried about getting bigger and better “stuff” than they are with how American troops are doing getting shot and killed for nothing no reason, except to support war profiteering.

    Americans don’t care, so the war continues.

19. jp March 22nd, 2007 1:58 pm

    You are right, panamahead. I just read the Marcus Raskin piece and was responding to that as well.

20. Lobo Gris March 22nd, 2007 3:59 pm

    misanthrope March 22nd, 2007 10:38 am

    Lobo Gris

    “There are so many connections that you don’t see. Your self congratulatory obstinance seems to keep you in a perpetual state of confusion:”

    I’m confused?

    The title of the article which you obviously must have missed:

    What American Sacrifice?

    Then he proceeds to try to directly link American consumption to a lack of concern about the Iraq war.

    The author states:

    “The level to which Bush can say this without being impeached is directly related to the depths that Americans delude ourselves daily in supposed safe havens of monstrous SUVs, McMansions, “man caves” and mega televisions.”

    American consumption aside there is plenty of concern about the war. It is expressed everyday all over the internet and short of outright revolution we have done what we could to end the war. We have repeatedly expressed our displeasure in the polls and have taken away the majority that the Republicans held in Congress, with the mandate that the Democrats end the war and impeach both Bush and Cheney. With the failure of the Democrats to act many at the local and state level have legislatively called for impeachment.

    The authors claim that our consumption deludes us to the point of ignoring the war simply doesn’t exist.

    And then he does call for sacrifice for an illegal war and tries to browbeat us because we don’t do more.

    “Yet, who would know? The carnage of Iraqis and the coffins of US soldiers have not yet merited a single national call to sacrifice by Bush.

    It is a classic sign of the times that The Washington Post tells us how many of our 23,400 wounded troops recuperate at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with cockroaches at their feet as Americans plunk down $2.5 billion for office pools for college basketball’s March Madness.”

    Being a combat veteran myself I am very familiar with the lack of adequate quality medical care for veterans and our sometimes shabby treatment by the Government. But I don’t link that to an uncaring American public or feel that their consumption is the cause of it. I put the blame where it belongs, on a Government that doesn’t adequately fund the VA. I don’t look at someone driving an SUV down the street and say to myself, it’s his fault that I can’t get a doctors appointment for six months because he is over consuming.

    While we are trading zingers. You know about confusion and all your nick says a lot about your outllook on things.

    Misanthrope, one who hates and distrusts all of human kind, not just the ones that do bad but all of us.

    And BTW, you never did explain what genocidal capitalism is and how it is responsible for the theft of the country from the Native Americans and turned an ecological paradise into an environmental disaster.

    Yup, we got warts and the Native Americans lost. Hopefully someday we will grow out of it, but it has been a part of human history. From the Roman empire, to the Spanish inquisitions, to the Irish Potato famine, to the Russian purges after the Revolution and Stalins purges after WWII, to the purges in China, to Pol Pot in Cambodia to Darfur, and even to the unwarranted invasion of Iraq, the world has warts.

    We also made the Louisiana purchase and bought Alaska from the Russians which involved no violence.

    The American people disagree with Bush on premptive preventive war and have expressed that displeasure.

    One of the things that people who want to go back and highlight past misdeeds miss is that the past can’t be changed, only the future can. Not that the past should be ignored but it isn’t healthy to dwell on it either.

    Lobo Gris

21. Lobo Gris March 22nd, 2007 4:03 pm

    #
    panamahead March 22nd, 2007 1:51 pm

    “Let not twist the authors point.

    The point he’s making is that Americans are more focused and worried about getting bigger and better “stuff” than they are with how American troops are doing getting shot and killed for nothing no reason, except to support war profiteering.

    Americans don’t care, so the war continues.”

    I haven’t missed or twisted the authors point I just disagree with it.

22. Lobo Gris March 22nd, 2007 5:12 pm

    jp March 22nd, 2007 1:38 pm

    Lobo gris, Calm down, please.

    I am calm, very calm.

    “American consumerism, fueled by capitalism’s imperative of endless growth (profit) over sustainability, and underwritten by American militarism abroad, brings about an enormous amount of suffering in the world.”

    That is the link that I don’t make. American consumption, with capitalistic profit and world suffering. I am not a fan of pure Capitalism anymore than I am any other pure ism. Communism, Facism, etc.

    Greed underwritten by American militarism abroad, does bring about suffering in the world. However it doesn’t even begin to compare to the suffering brought about by the movement of jobs and capital to low wage unregulated areas of the world. The sweatshops and worse that we got rid of over a century ago are back, just out of sight because they aren’t within our borders. There are way too many examples to list so I’ll limit it to just two. There are children in the mideast, sorry I don’t remember whether it’s in India or Pakistan that are chained to weaving machines in buildings with a single light bulb, their fingers burned with gunpowder so they won’t feel it when they poke themselves the needles that are making persian rugs for consumption in the developed countries, There are more children in China that are sorting through the toxic remains of discarded computers to salvage what is left that is valuble. There was a woman in the Carribean, a floor supervisor, who complained that she wasn’t feeling well one day, only to be told that if she left not to come back. Later that same day she aborted her unborn child on the factory floor. That’s three sorry but I get carried away.

    The question is should we quit buying all products, that isn’t feasable and everyone knows it. Is the American consumer at fault for consuming products. We have no way of knowing which products are produced that way and which ones aren’t, it is carefully hidden from us by the producers and the governments that are complicit by ignoring it.

    The fault lies with policies enacted by our government that encourage companies to move and to engage in these practices. Among the many faults in our negotiated trade agreements lack of labor standards ranks right at the top.

    “Witness Iraq”

    Yes the Iraq war is wrong and there has been no more ardent opponent of it than myself. What I disagre with is the authors contention that we are ignoring it because of our consumption. Read my post to misanthrope.

    “We have to work together (my fantasy, I suppose) to make ammends and to prevent these actions in the future.”

    You aren’t wrong here but short of outright revolution there isn’t much more that the public can do over what they have already done.

    The protests can increase and I fully expect them to, but that won’t insure that Bush will listen anymore than he has to any of the other messages the public has sent him.

    “It’s not about “blame America first,” but it’s about facing up to our responsibilities, given our economic and military power. We can and do a lot of harm in the world that we are insulated from. We have the power to do a lot of good.”

    This is where your fantasy is or really just your lack of knowledge.

    We are broke and soon headed for economic collapse. Our power to do good or bad is soon to be considerably diminished if not wiped out all together.

    Lobo Gris

23. Lobo Gris March 22nd, 2007 8:38 pm

    Something else everyone should keep in mind about U.S. comsumer spending.

    Consumer spending accounts for 70% of the U.S. economy. (not for long we’re broke) How big of a drop in the economy are you prepared to accept for us to reduce consumption? Not to mention the fact that everyone holds up as being better than us because they spend and consume less makes money off of our spending which boosts their economy. China to the tune of 200 billion dollars a year. We also run trade deficits with the European Union, Japan, Mexico, the Middle East, and everyone else we trade with, developed and undeveloped alike.

    Lobo Gris

24. Gail March 22nd, 2007 9:05 pm

    Lobo Gris March 22nd, 2007 5:12 pm

    “We are broke and soon headed for economic collapse. Our power to do good or bad is soon to be considerably diminished if not wiped out all together.”

    As long as Congress allows the Federal Reserve Bank to control our destiny and print money at their disgression, this nonsense could last for a long time. Our country is already somewhere around 10 trillion or more in debt if we can believe what they tell us….it could certainly be more than that considering all the fancy juggling they perform before the figures are printed. Who knows?

    Lobo, you stated earlier: “I fail to see how capital creation deliberately keeps people in the third world uneducated, ignorant, and in a state of poverty.”

    If you read “The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order” by Michel Chossudovsky, all of your questions will be answered. It would take me too long to explain the links among Wall Street; WTO; World Bank; IMF, etc.., relative to global poverty.

    Chossudovsky’s writings have been translated into 20 languages and here’s what the American Library Association said about this book: “This concise, provocative book reveals the negative effects of imposed economic structural reform. It deserves to be read carefully and widely.”

25. Gail March 22nd, 2007 9:20 pm

    I should really use spell-check before posting. “Discretion” is more accurate.

26. Lobo Gris March 23rd, 2007 4:40 am

    Gail March 22nd, 2007 9:05 pm

    “If you read “The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order” by Michel Chossudovsky, all of your questions will be answered.”

    I already don’t like the WTO, the World Bank, and the IMF. But I don’t see organizations such as the WTO as capital creaters. They are a trade organization that supposedly polices trade disputes among nations. The world bank and the IMF are lenders but not creaters of capital. There is definitely a link between them and world poverty.

    Anyway I’ll check it out.

    “As long as Congress allows the Federal Reserve Bank to control our destiny and print money at their disgression, this nonsense could last for a long time.”

    Actually it can’t last a long time. Anytime a country inflates the money supply without anything to back it up, GDP growth, or assets such as Gold etc. it always catches up with them. The currency ends up being devalued leading to inflation. Often a country will do this to try to pay off unsupportable debt but the countries they are paying soon refuse to accept the valueless money. That is already starting to happen with us. Our creditors are starting to get nervous about us being a bad credit risk, and are stsrting to diversefy away from the dollar. (in other words they are starting to quit lending us money.) At some point the dollar will cease being the worlds standard currency because of it’s lack of real value and then it will devalue even more making everything bought with it even more expensive, read that as yet more inflation. If the government continues to print more money to cover that…. it’s can become an endless cycle to the point that you may have to have a pickup truck load to buy a loaf of bread. The end result is a much reduced standard of living for most of us. Those who got rich off this little scheme excepted. They will suffer if they hang around but not near as much as the rest of us. More likely being rich they will be able to cash out at the begining and move to say Europe where the currency is stable and worth more, leaving the rest of us schmucks that they suckered holding the bag. The only thing that may stave it off for a while is the fact that a lot of our creditors need us to buy their products and they will be reluctant to kill the market they sell to.

    We are just short of 9 trillion dollars in debt, 8.8 trillion to be exact and that is probably pretty accurate. Every time we bump up against the debt ceiling the Congress has to raise it for us to borrow more. Not much way to hide that.

    Lobo Gris

27. lor8 March 24th, 2007 1:17 pm

    Jackson’s article isn’t asking us to sacrifice FOR the war. He’s asking us to take a look at ourselves. Unless we start taking responsibility for the way we live (sacrificing) we have no voice and no power.

    Most of your comments are complaints against gov’t, world organizations and corporations but it’s we the people who enable them. Instead of looking to our gov’t (which is owned by corporations) to do something, WE need to regain a sense of personal and collective responsibility. We live beyond our means, buy crap we don’t need and we don’t save any money. Consequently, we’re not free. This administration wants us to be in debt and own houses we can’t afford because while we’re busy shopping (and frantic about paying for our sprees), we’re not noticing that they’ve put Blackwater in place—a private mercenary army paid for with tax dollars that doesn’t have to answer to civil or military courts. (What if it wasn’t just oil we invaded Iraq for, but precisely to break our military to justify building a private one?) This gov’t foresees and wants endless war—it’s good for the economy.

    Where were banking regulators when people without credit and low-paying jobs were qualifying for sub-prime or interest-only mortgages? That buying frenzy was apparently a shot in the arm for the economy but now that the houses are being foreclosed, it hurts all of us because property values plummet. And, they were never going to have any equity in those homes, anyway.

    Why didn’t banks offer higher interest on savings as other interest rates went up? They don’t want us to save and be personally solvent. They need for us to spend. As long as we’re living beyond our means, we are dependent and enslaved. Corporations can continue to lower wages, take back benefits and it’s getting harder for us to quit and work elsewhere because they’re all doing the same thing. (And, we have no savings to rely on.) They don’t need us to be productive for them anymore because the world is a pool of cheap labor. The irony is that they still need us to buy from them but how long will that last as we lose our jobs to outsourcing?

    The middle-class IS being dismantled but we are helping that cause. Spending beyond our means makes us powerless. The economy is no longer serving people. We are now expected and required to serve it. I’m not advocating that we destroy the economy but it’s based falsely on over-consumption and needs a “correction.”

    No one is suggesting that we live naked in the woods—there is a medium ground: Buy what you need and can afford. Know yourself and your circumstances and act accordingly. Don’t use credit cards unless you can pay them off. Stop shopping for the sake of shopping.

    We keep asking gov’t to do the right thing but it frankly isn’t in its self-interest to solve our country’s problems. This gov’t wants us to be helpless children who will forget what really matters so they can keep on with their agenda: endless war, outsourcing jobs and importing cheap labor where outsourcing isn’t possible, selling off tax-payer-owned infrastructure to foreign countries for fast cash, silencing the press, tampering with our justice system, taking away our civil liberties, making sure their cronies profit, etc. We are well on the road to becoming a third world country and it’s taken Bush/Cheney and their corporate friends only 6 years to do it.

    The only voice we have left is our purchasing power. We need to start using it by not spending whenever we can and denying ourselves whatever we don’t need. Shop for banks that offer decent interest on savings or bury your money in the backyard until they do. Remember that every time we spend mindlessly, we are paying the very corporations who direct our government.

28. bntetuziciru December 10th, 2007 1:20 am

    titsykiwukupa…

    exzehusopazy…

29. bnzyninywipo December 26th, 2007 7:58 pm

    titpuravyxapa…

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