Dollars for Democracy - Politicizing Consumer Spending
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
Created Sep 20 2006 - 9:38am
We the people have a secret weapon.

It is known to the political and economic plutocrats running and ruining out
country, but not to working- and middle-class citizens.

Easy to see Americans as both consumers and citizens (let's ignore illegal
immigrants). My point is that most Americans spend a very large fraction of
their lives as consumers and hardly any part as citizens. Here is the issue:
Should activist (or at least verbose) dissenters urge Americans to use their
role as consumers to achieve political and economic justice?

Recall that after 9/11 President Bush and other politicians urged Americans
to keep shopping, to keep spending money as a patriotic duty. Clearly their
view was that being a good American in the face of terrorism meant being a
good consumer. It revealed a deep fear of power elites, not of terrorists,
but of American consumers.

Here is American reality: Consumerism equals patriotism. Say that out loud
several times and let it sink in. Do you think children have learned this
civics lesson? Advertisers think so.

Personally, I do not condemn Americans who do not vote. Voting in our
current system is hardly justified in light of the two-party duopoly and a
pervasive political culture of lies and propaganda. I usually feel more
respect for a thoughtful non-voter than a lesser-evil voter. What unites
Americans is their consumerism. And the genius of the economic and political
power elites that run the country is that they have managed to create and
maintain obsessive consumerism that drives the economy while keeping
consumerism apolitical. Meanwhile, Americans do not vote in large numbers
and, for the most part, are too distracted to be politically active.

My hypothesis is that the most potent political power of Americans to
provoke major reform is not through their votes anymore, but as consumers.
That means as spenders - not just consumers of things, but also as consumers
of services and borrowed money.

To put fear into Democratic and Republican politicians we must talk
seriously about a movement to curb consumer spending - actually to control
it, to develop the capability to turn it on and off to obtain political
victories. Doing this will scare the crap out of political and corporate
elites. In today's world, turning consumer spending down is better than
votes or bullets to obtain long overdue political and economic reforms.

This requires convincing ordinary, hard working and debt ridden Americans to
curb their spending and increase their saving at critical times. In other
words, to get Americans to NOT act like their government that keeps things
rolling along by excessive, wasteful spending and borrowing.

Consumer spending must be made a political tool by which to obtain political
and economic concessions - to fight the plutocracy and the economic
inequality it fosters. Now, consumer confidence betrays democracy. Unbridled
consumer spending empowers and enriches the elites who punish the public
with more economic inequality. Americans have been spending their way into
economic hell, aided by credit-enabling instant gratification.

Curb spending, pay off debt, save for future needs. Sounds simple and yet,
if executed by millions of Americans, this behavior has REVOLUTIONARY power.
Power elites would condemn it as unpatriotic.

Can 10 to 20 million Americans gain self-control over their spending and
borrowing? Can they delay gratification? Can they cut back on eating out,
driving, buying fancy prepared foods, buying and renting videos and games,
buying new cars, buying new clothes and other consumer goods? Can they delay
domestic vacations, home remodeling and spa treatments? Can they say to
themselves: I can help make America better if I curb my spending as a
political act! Not spending money takes courage. Of course, I'm talking
about discretionary spending of the middle 60 percent of people on the
income spectrum, not the working poor or the rich.

I bet you that if this happens - to even a modest degree - elected Democrats
and Republicans would become hysterical. Pictures would be painted
immediately of a meltdown of the American economy. They would fear a hit to
the economy even worse than what would result from more 9/11-type terrorist
attacks and Katrina-type natural disasters. The plutocracy would have fits.
Economic elites making up the top 5 percent of the population in terms of
wealth would be phoning their political lackeys demanding action. There
would be bipartisan calls for national unity and patriotic resumption of
consumer spending. Imagine what faux-populists Bill O'Reilly and Rush
Limbaugh would snarl.

Crisis management would be in full swing. Whoever is president would be on
TV from the oval office condemning the traitorous cut in consumer spending
and paint a picture of national disaster. Enlightened consumers would be
called dirty names - like socialists, lefties, commies, populists,
progressives and - best of all - economic terrorists!

The Federal Reserve, sensing a hit to GDP growth, would probably lower
interest rates to zero to get people to borrow, and banks would reduce
interest on savings to get people to spend rather than save. The stock
market would be crashing, and so people would be afraid to buy more mutual
fund shares or regular stocks. [Of course, this would be the smartest time
to invest as much as possible rather than consume.]

To frighten the public, the threat of millions of Americans losing their
jobs would immediately be invoked by politicians and business leaders. But
firing workers would, logically, reduce the ability of consumers to resume
spending. Sounds like a real quandary for corporate America.

Tension would mount. What do consumers want? Are these radicals trying to
destroy America? Our political and business leaders would be asking this in
interviews, reminiscent of how large labor unions used to be attacked.
Frenzied mainstream media would be milking the news story while
contemplating massive reductions in advertising! All over network and cable
TV, radio talk shows and newspapers and magazines there would be endless
pleadings by politicians and business leaders aimed at convincing the public
that it is suicidal for them to maintain their spending slowdown. Paying off
debt and saving more would be derided.

What a wonderful scenario to contemplate: Capitalism crumbling because
Americans swear off excessive, compulsive and distractive consumption; right
wing pundits screaming about an attack from within by economic terrorists.
Meanwhile, citizens could feel their consumer power being taken seriously.
Progressive Internet sites would be heaping praise on them.

An historic first: Americans discover political power by exercising their
freedom to NOT spend THEIR MONEY, more rewarding than voting. They become
economic patriots, rebooting representative democracy. The dollar becomes
mightier than both the sword and the vote!

How do we start? Americans must envision a set of political and economic
reforms to seek.

True progressives and smart dissenters can help shape the agenda. Creating a
national debate on what consumers acting as angry, fed up citizens should
demand from the corrupt plutocracy that now disrespects them. For example, a
good initial goal for the new congress would be a raise in the minimum wage.
A few weeks of reduced consumer spending might do the trick. Getting out of
Iraq might take a month or two of consumer revolt. Serious electoral reforms
might also require a few months of enjoyable sacrifice.

I urge you to ruminate on these questions:

Is a democracy first rate when patriotism is most manifest through
consumerism?

Can perhaps 10 to 20 million Americans learn to flex their spending muscle
to gain political and economic justice?

Can the highly fragmented progressive community unite and inspire millions
of Americans that are fed up with the political system to exercise their
inherent consumer power?

Dollars for Democracy!

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson