Thoughts at 4 AM: I Am a Bad Global CItizen!

So, the little guy was up at 4:00 AM, yelling my name. I heard him through the monitor. It’s a two-way deal, so I can talk to him through it. I asked what he wanted. Very matter-of-factly, he let me know he had to pee. That’s a positive when you’re at the tail-end of potty training, so I mustered up some gratitude for his progress and went to help him to the bathroom. He’s so chipper at 4:00 AM; it chaps my ass. His irresistible cuteness kicks in, though, and I just wind up smiling stupidly at him as he stands there trying to take care of business. He smiles back, every time.

Last night was no different. He did his thing, I took him back to bed, and his eyes were rolling back in his head before I left his room. Out. Me, on the other hand…well, I went back to bed and couldn’t find sleep. It eluded me, so my mind started processing. Saturday evening, I watched a recent episode of Oprah’s show on our TiVo. Suze Orman was the guest, and she was laying it out: what you need to do in 2009 to survive the economic downturn. If you thought last year was nutty, wait until people start DEALING with what went nutty last year. That’s what’s in store for 2009. So, Suze Orman wrote a book, an action plan for 2009. Seriously, it’s a book specifically written to help people get their financial houses in order in the year 2009. You can get it for free until January 15th. Check it out at Oprah.com/download. The whole point of the book and the show was to help give anyone willing to listen a plan for reducing debt and increasing their long-term financial security. The show left an impression on me and got some wheels turning.

Listening to Suze, contemplating the US economy, seriously considering consumerism, and stuff like that lead me to the conclusion that this whole system is screwed up. The U.S. Government actually encourages people to go out and spend money…that they don’t have. Huh? You want people to work their butts off making minimum wage, barely make enough to stay above the Poverty Level, and then run out with their “discretionary” cash and buy crap they really don’t need to survive. I am sure that the $200 XBox will definitely have a HUGE positive impact on the quality of life of that household making the $40K a year. Forget that their health care costs are through the roof and that they have no savings in the event of an unforeseen personal crisis. I know, I know: self-accountability. I get that. It’s all about choices, that is true. Still, the pressure to consume is incredible, the onslaught relentless. We should live in a world where you have to fight against pressure to buy, buy, buy. But that’s the engine that turns the world.

I think about it this way: imagine two companies, Company A and Company B. People work for Company A. They make Doodads. They churn them out and earn their wages. People work for Company B. They make Doomahakies. They churn them out and earn their wages. Marketing people at both companies convince everyone their lives are incomplete without Doodads and Doomahakies, neither of which are essential for life. So, people from Company A spend their left over pennies on Doomahakies, and people from Company B spend their left over pennies on Doodads. Both companies are profitable, people get paid, and life goes on. And on and on and on. As the machine chugs along, what progress is made? People are running to stand still, sweating to make money that we are encouraged over and over again to spend.

Spending is the measure of a healthy economy, so that means things are at their best when people are in a never-ending cycle of acquisition. That means we should be working our wholes lives to we can constantly buy stuff, and we should plan on having hordes of cash for retirement so that we can continue to spend money until we die. That’s how we keep the World Economy strong. How utterly depressing. Ba-a-ah! I feel like a sheep.

I fell asleep before I could conjure up a brilliant solution. I woke up not wanting to contribute to the World Economy. I am a bad Global Citizen! Bad Global Citizen!