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Townhall
Finance...
Get
Your iWhatever on Credit Here
by Bill Tatro
December 1, 2011
When
I watched shoppers on Black
Friday rioting over discount wash towels and then see hi-definition
televisions
being scooped up like bags of potato chips, I start to wonder.
My
thoughts turn to what would happen
if true shortages started showing up.
What
would happen if people had to wait at midnight for their needs as
opposed to
their wants.
During
the roaring 20’s, advertising
came into vogue.
The
consumer was convinced that their
wants were actually their basic needs.
Never mind the consumer could not afford his
or her most recent
desire.
The
layaway plan was being developed
to solve the immediate cash problem.
We’ve evolved from layaway to credit cards and
now back to layaway, one
big circle.
Everyone
getting whatever they want;
it has become the great American way.
It
would seem little has changed over the past 90 years.
Madison
Avenue still convinces us that
the newest iPad or iPhone or iWhatever makes our life worth living and
without
these devices, well, it simply can’t happen.
Unfortunately,
the access to home
equity is gone, credit cards are maxed, and job security is
questionable.
However,
the craving for “want”
satisfaction is greater than ever.
Whatever
it takes, from strategic
default to increased indebtedness, the insatiable “want” desire will be
satisfied, and therein lies the rub.
Most
of what is being purchased is
manufactured somewhere else in the world.
The excitement of Black Friday sends more jobs
overseas and less at home
which leads to smaller margins resulting in more bankruptcies.
The
confusion of want and need will
ultimately lead us to a decimated economy that will have high
unemployment and
a desperation that will make the Atlanta Walmart towel incident mild by
comparison.
Madison
Avenue in the 20’s said you
can have it, you can have it all, and they still say the same thing.
But
you can’t.
The
ultimate outcome of the 30’s was
the elimination of wants being replaced by the day-to-day struggle of
life-sustaining needs.
The
day will come when lines will be
forming at midnight, not for the most recent digital gadget, but for
the most
recent distribution of bread.
Can’t
happen? Impossible?
That’s
what they said in the 1930’s.
Read
this and other columns at
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