While our culture of consumerism has benefited corporate America, it has harmed our citizens, hurt our economy, and weakened our nation. It has been particularly harmful to the American blue-collar worker, sacrificed to the holy grail of maximizing profit and globalization by America's multinational corporations. America's welfare depends on a thriving middle class, on prosperous blue-collar workers.
How has our consumer economy hurt America? Let me count the ways.
Psychologically, mass marketing images have created a nation of individuals who are constantly dissatisfied with their lives … whether it’s how they look, the job they have, how much money they make, the home they live in, etc. No aspect of our lives escapes this need to project success or power/popularity, mostly through acquiring material things. And we always want more; it’s never enough.
You won’t find evidence of this in satisfaction polls, because our culture places a premium on feeling good and being happy. And since people feel that they’re supposed to feel good and be happy—that state is valued by our culture—people put on that façade … not knowingly but in an act of self-deception. So while satisfaction polls show that the vast majority of people are satisfied now with their lives, studies of depression show that a large percentage of Americans are depressed with their lives, especially youth.
While I know of no studies that document what I am about to posit, I believe that the large increase in the extent of depression in this country, especially among youth and young adults, stems not from more awareness of life’s problems, as has often been stated, but from this constant dissatisfaction that people feel about themselves, together with the alienating impact of technology. Indeed, when people feel down, it's not uncommon to get a “fix” by going out to buy something or going to their screens.
Our economy has also become addicted to consumerism. 68% of our GDP is derived from consumer spending. But consumerism is a very unproductive use of the nation’s wealth. It does not move our country forward.
And since much of what we consume is no longer produced here but overseas, increased demand for consumer goods doesn’t help employment like it used to—just the opposite. Because corporations can now produce the goods they sell almost anywhere in the world to take advantage of cheaper production costs, the combination of lost jobs and the cudgel of competition of low-cost overseas workers has resulted in the wages of the American blue-collar worker stagnating since the 70s while the cost of living and corporate profits have soared,
Meanwhile, the United States is falling behind other countries on various measures and entering a dangerous period because we cannot afford to do what it takes to keep this country strong … and I don’t mean military spending. I mean spending on infrastructure, both maintenance and new. I mean spending on education and health care. I mean spending on housing. I mean spending on cutting-edge research and development, investment in new industries that will drive our economy in the future.
To stop this focus on consumerism and find the money to invest in our country’s wellbeing, we must shift our economy from one based primarily on consumerism to one based primarily on building our country. This involves changing the components of our GDP without reducing it or our growth. On the contrary, because it would mostly involve projects that must, by their very nature, be accomplished within the United States, it would create millions of jobs for American blue-collar workers instead of jobs outsourced overseas. Jobs for American workers in industry and construction would increase significantly.
To shift from a consumer economy to a nation-building economy, we will need to wean ourselves off the need to constantly buy things to be happy. American industry will have to change much of what it produces, but it proved it could do just that in WWII. Instead of using discretionary income for self-gratification, we will need to get comfortable with that money going to the government in the form of taxes, to fund projects that benefit the nation, and thus ultimately ourselves. This will be a difficult, complicated process and require a commitment over many years.
Many will howl at the suggestion of higher taxes, but we must remember that the United States has by far the lowest tax rate of any developed country. Yet, and this bears repeating, people in those countries, despite the high taxes, not only prosper but also have a higher level of wellbeing … whether in health, education, or other measures … than Americans do.
Making such a change in our culture will take principled leadership and preferably a united political front. We must approach this like a war used to be … all hands on deck and united. And everyone must be prepared to sacrifice.
At this point in our history, that concept … a united political front … as well as group sacrifice seem impossible to imagine. Yet we must strive toward that end if America is to regain its global strength and provide all its citizens—not just the well-off or rich—with a secure, comfortable standard of living and a sense of well-being.
The saying used to be, "What's good for General Motors is good for America." That thought was thoroughly debunked many years ago, and as shown again in this article, what is good for corporate America is often not good for the country. But the truth that I present in the title, "What's good for the blue collar worker is good for America," is unassailable because it is in the welfare of the average American that the health and vitality of our country is dependent.
Ronald L. Hirsch is a teacher, legal aid lawyer, survey researcher, nonprofit executive, consultant, composer, author, and volunteer. He is a graduate of Brown University and the University of Chicago Law School and the author of We Still Hold These Truths. Read more of his writing at www.PreservingAmericanValues.com
