I'm with Ina

This Letter to the Editor in the NY Times this morning caught my eye.

We consumers are getting contradictory messages about spending. On the one hand, we are told that our overconsumption is polluting and cluttering up the earth with garbage, using up resources and showing insensitivity to all the needy people in the world. On the other hand, we are told that until we start buying more goods and services, the economy will be in the dumps and we will leave many of our fellow citizens jobless, homeless and hungry.

Something is wrong with that picture. I personally don’t feel like buying much of anything, and my life is a lot less cluttered.

Ina Aronow
New Rochelle, N.Y., Dec.
24, 2008

Personally, I'm adjusting to spending a lot less, and it doesn't bother me that much. It is simpler and as I get used to it, less stressful. What happens to the economy when we all start to feel this way? Economists have a term for it. "Recession. " What happens when this feeling of simplicity catches on? We don't know, but this question must be addressed. Simply getting the economy "back on track" is not the answer when the track is going in the wrong direction!