The Economy Wants Us Soft

So here we are, living in this great country with an economic system based on the simple principle that if we just buy stuff- everyone will have good jobs and live happily ever after.
There is a fundamental logic to this, as on a small scale you can see--buying some sugar from Sam's General Store helps Sam and Sam in turn will buy my wheat...or something like that.
But then the town's population increases & increases again, thus you keep needing to grow this tyre of system indefinitely. And nobody is happy with slow growth--they want it fast --so some can be wealthy.

What's the result??? Well advertising, pressure to buy and keeping up with the Joneses--and worse-- the conviction that you need so much just to exist.
That's how I define "soft"--the inability to fend for yourself. A night without TV, ipods, cell phones, microwaves, and climate control has now become an impossibility for many Americans.
Just recently the Anchorage news was reporting on a family of African immigrants arriving in Alaska. The kind social service agency assisting them gave them boxes of "necessities"--shaving cream, shampoo, furniture, toys.. What's interesting to note--is that the man interviewed simply called these items--"luxuries". He was almost surprised that he needed all these items to survive, especially after coming from an African refugee camp.

Not that I feel this family shouldn't get the gifts, of course they needed them in order to fit in, go to school and get jobs. It's just amazing to see that it is all a matter of perception. How much we have become dependent on material goods or what could be considered luxuries. And most of us are not immune, I myself am no fan of camping and always lug wet wipes into the wilderness. And even then, I feel itchy without having a hot shower for 1 or 2 nights.

We so easily get hooked on instant messages, cell phones and 24 hour climate control all in the name of keeping the economy chugging along. Folks complain about the high cost of raising children without a hint of irony that these kid costs are mostly made up of buying fancy strollers, brand new gym shoes and keeping up with video game systems. Otherwise our kiddies will be mocked--that's the system we live in.