Consumerism

Basing an economy on domestic consumption versus production is the equivalent to basing the economy on spending the money instead of making money.

- A family being the smallest economic unit within a society needs a source of income to sustain itself. To get the income they have to create some goods or services and sell them on the market or some family members will have to get out and find a job for which they will get paid. That money is then used to pay household bills and provide for schooling, health care and leisure expenses. So, these family members in actuality 'produce' or earn money needed to support the economic growth of their household. If they were jobless or did not make any products they can sell, they would have to depend on some form of help from wider family, friends or society in order to survive. Otherwise, they are out on the street, broke.

- A country, being the biggest economic unit in todays world needs that same source of income to sustain itself. It's citizens (the same family members from previous example) will provide goods and services, to a degree, and will constitute country's work force, but if the government does not provide the market for them, they will be jobless and their goods will remain unsold. Consequently, their standard of living will erode. The government of the country is the only body that regulates the size and availability of those markets. But if the government keeps allowing companies to move abroad in search of cheaper labor, and allowing more goods to be imported because they are cheaper then domestic ones, that same government is cutting it's country's own resources and ability to compete on the global market. If the country does not produce anything or if the country's goods and services are not competitive on the global market, than we will not be able to make any money to pay our bills, provide for our citizens education, health care, infrastructure etc. So, if we do not have any money coming in, how do we support our lifestyle? By spending? Spending something that we do not have? You borrow. And you borrow some more. And you keep borrowing until lenders stop loaning to you, because you are not credit-worthy anymore because you do not have any collateral to put against your loans. And then what? Well, it already happened to a number of places throughout history: Egiptian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Mongol, British, French, Russian, Spanish, Austrian empire..., none an empire anymore.

- If we want our economy to be dependent on spending money, then we have to have that money earned somehow. But, instead of earning it we are actually begging the rest of the world to support us in being who we would like to be. We live our little American dreams today based on a hope that someday someone will repay loans we took. The same applies to both a single family and a country as a whole. The only problem is that when a little guy runs out of money, his 'big brother' will force him into bankruptcy, repossessing his house, car, everything. On a global scale, what guaranty do we have that the rest of the world will not do the same to our country?