The Approaching Holiday Shopping Spree as the US Economy Declines

As Americans head into the annual holiday shopping orgy, it is a good time to explore how our excessive spending damages us. The ten busiest shopping days of the year are between the day after Thanksgiving and two days before Christmas.

From Thanksgiving to New Years many Americans binge and gorge themselves–on food, drinking, toys, gadgets, machines, and other objects. We consume precious resources like water and non-essentials as if they are infinite and there are no limits. The American Dream is excess–bigger cars, bigger houses, and bigger everything. Swimming pools, golf courses, pampered lawns and guzzling Hummers create a false illusion of prosperity beneath which a declining economy hides. But the hidden costs and limits to growth are catching up with us.

… An article at www.energybulletin.net by a Russian now living in the US, recently came to my attention. In an excerpt from what has expanded into a book to be published next Spring Dmitry Orlov writes, “I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and this has given me insights to describe what the American collapse will look like.” Orlov’s pending book is entitled “Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Experience and American Prospects.” (www.newsociety.com) “Collapse” seems appropriate to describe where the US economy may be headed.

Smirking Chimp