By Your Consumer Curmudgeon

One of the things I never quite understood about the mentality behind the Wal-Mart phenomenon, one that created a national retail economy consisting of one family of billionaires and a zillion low-paid workers barely getting by, was the fact that Wal-Mart had managed to create an entire consumer class, in effect, that could not afford to shop anywhere except (you guessed it) Wal-Mart. Small surprise that Wal-Mart was the only major stock that showed gains last year other than the energy giants, of course.

True, quite a few Wall Street Gordon Gekkos, robber baron bank financiers, and WMD war marketeers still live and lurk among us here and there in their gated mansions and communities, but by and large we have now been reduced to a Wal-Mart economy of a lot of low-paid workers and a few well-heeled owners.

America has become, to a remarkable extent, a one-company town. Like in that old Tennessee Ernie Ford song, unless we can regain control over our economic futures, fight for genuine alternatives and a truly free (as opposed to monopolistic) market, we will all indeed soon owe our souls to the company store. Or at least be obliged to spend all our hard-earned cash there.

I for one am not impressed with President-elect Obama's plans to provide three million new jobs, mostly from “the private sector.” What private sector? Wal-Mart? The private sector that took our economy and deposited it into a Swiss bank account? Has no one learned a lesson here? As for “saving” all those Detroit jobs, that's just postponing the inevitable—at huge cost—because there is no evidence whatsoever that Detroit will actually change anything other than maybe its own tires. Last weekend, on the heels of GM's gift of $4 billion, Chrysler elbowed its way into line at the soup kitchen for their own $4 billion handout. “This initial loan will allow the company to continue an orderly restructuring," Chrysler Chief Executive Bob Nardelli said in a statement (Reuters). That's a good one. “Orderly restructuring” is Detroit jargon for “business as usual.” GM is getting the same amount to keep their loan sharks in business, conning you into buying that shiny SUV you can't afford to operate, let alone buy, that they're still trying to unload by being their own banker. They were still pushing big pickups and SUVs on all the major networks last I looked, and with the cost of fuel (temporarily) down again, no one is shouting for what we need most to have any kind of future at all: fuel efficiency, alternative energy resources, and a new transportation paradigm.

Yes, bold action is needed, according to virtually all the world's non-Reagan economists. And bold action is exactly what global governments, including (maybe especially) our own are most resistant to. “The market will take care of itself,” seems to be as affixed to our national psyche as ever. Sure. With a few trillions of taxpayer money it will—itself and nobody else—and no accounting need be made, thank you very (very) much. Did no one notice how well the market took care of the financial industry and Wall Street? It took great care of a few high rollers. If this isn't Socialism and Welfare taken to the Tudor/Hapsburg extreme I don't know what is. And it took care of the rest of us the same way that Mohammed Ali used to “take care of” his opponents in the ring.

Certainly no one is taking care of the real needs of the consumers of America, their jobs, or futures. Not in the way that we are expected to take care of our elders and our children. For the past decade, our leaders have taken care of nothing but themselves, and Big Business. Literally.

So what about this latest stimulus plan, or package? Why are we even talking about this? We already had one last year. It gave each of us just enough to pay for the increased cost of fuel. It did absolutely nothing for the economy, which continued to swirl down the global toilet even faster than before. And tax cuts? Are they serious? Didn't anyone notice what great good the last round accomplished? How, exactly, are we supposed to pay for new infrastructure, schools, roads, highways, green jobs, and alternative energy with less available money? Does congress expect the consumer to cash in the last of his 401K to bankroll new jobs and industries if the government isn't going to help? What is needed, as the few and frail Keynesian economists have barely dared whisper, is a lot more than a stimulus. Stimulus means encouraging you to do something you have to do anyway. Or would, if only you could. It's like those offers of 15% off your next purchase at your friendly neighborhood Cadillac dealer, when you're just trying to keep that old Datsun afloat. It's like the coach saying “win this game and dinner's on me” which is great, but dinner is at McDonald's anyway, and meanwhile you're down 58-0 and it's late in the 4th quarter. Hello?

What we need is the change we've been promised, which is being compromised away even before we ever get started, in order to protect the status quo for those who have the most at stake. Obama talks about rebuilding the infrastructure, which is certainly desperately needed. But with what? All fifty states are cutting budgets to the bone, including the most basic of services; the kind of services that keep us functioning as a civilized society, as opposed to a winner-takes-all band of headhunters. And the national budget is owned lock, stock and barrel by you know who.

So the states, which are where all the needed infrastructure renewal exists, aren't going to have anything to chip in for this laudable goal. Who will? The Fed just printed a trillion or two new dollars and handed them out willy-nilly to the same players who put us into this hole in the first place with nary a word of accountability, and there's nothing left for the infrastructure. Is Wall Street going to foot this bill? Or Citicorp? How about the Walton family of Wal-Mart fame?

Don't hold your breath. Best thing to do now, as I've said before, is to hold onto your wallet and whatever is left in it, buy nothing you don't absolutely need, and most of all, don't buy any of the bull that's still coming out of Washington.

Happy New Year.