True Consumer Confidence

A letter in today's NY Times says that true consumer confidence is to be able to walk out of a store without buying anything. Having the courage to not buy something is a way of fighting consumerism. Yes, it is necessary for the economy that people have the money to spend, that they believe they will continue to have money and that jobs exist and there are products, but it is foolish to believe that the only way to a healthy economy is if people shop needlessly. It is comparable to arguing that people should go to the hospital even when they aren't sick in order to keep the hospital open. Perhaps it is necessary to get work done on ones car to support the mechanic. For that matter, it might be the right thing to junk ones car every few years and buy another one to keep the automobile industry profitable.

Here is the letter to the editor. The link to the letter follows.
I just finished “Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee,” by Michael Kinsley (Op-Ed, Nov. 14), and I must admit: this concept of “consumer confidence” is beginning to bother me.

It seems to imply that we can portray “confidence” only by purchasing things.

To me, however, true consumer confidence is the ability to know that your life will not break down without the object you’re wishing you could buy, and that maybe, just maybe, your life could even be better without it.

It is the ability to walk out of the store with nothing in hand and not feel as if you’ve failed in any way.

So let’s call things for what they really are, and give credit, and even the term “confidence,” to those who rightly deserve it. Jennifer Duenes

Oakland, Calif., Nov. 14, 2008


Link to the NY Times letter