The End of Greed

So, in his speech tonight, George Bush made repeated references to how a federal bailout would "open up" the financial gears that are clogged right now, and how this would allow banks to get "back on track" with their lending, making it easier once again for "average Americans" to get credit. He also talks about how this credit could then be used to "buy a car, or send your children to college." How white-picket-fence-with-a-stew-boiling-in-the-kitchen American. Only the slightest references to "excess" that in the end are really just "instances of abuse". Nothing wrong at all with the way we think. No, no, that would be unamerican of us to think critically about our culture. No talk of addressing the real problem or encouraging Americans to rethink their way of living which has gotten us into this downward spiral in the first place: greed. In fact, lets just keep encouraging it. After all, can we make any more sweepingly trite generalizations that "Democratic Capitalism is the best system every designed" (at this point I think I was looking for a gun to cap my own ass and then I realized that I am anti-gun, damn it!), and that It (with a capital "i") is what has made us the great country we are just to make us feel better about ourselves even as we lurch towards economic self destruction?

Just come out and say it. We are trying to fix the problem so that credit can keep flowing, and you can keep paying for your Hummer, the 50 gallons of gas per mile that it requires, your five bedroom house, your weekends in the Hamptons and your Rock Star Life Style. Want a new backyard gnome garden? Pass the bill. Want that new hard drive extension that serves as an internet server, plasma TV and herb grower? Lets push through this legislation. Need that frivolous crap that will eventually just end up in your basement or a thrift store? Sign this into effect.

And while I understand that entrepreneurs and business owners DO need that credit, as his righteousness mentioned, what are we going to do about John Doe who is just trying to keep up with the Joneses, and that whose struggle with the coolest, newest and most expensive has become an internalized aspect of his culture? When will we address our over-consumption and frivolousness?

I know this just seems like a ranting rage at this point, and that Chris is on his soapbox about American consumerism once again, but I feel justified. What I have been raving about for years is finally what people are starting to see as the solution. If only we thought about this three years ago, but then again, that's when our newest iPod was more important.