Ironically, few Americans understand that a relatively small number of consumers, roughly 5 to 10 million have the economic power to severely damage the American and global economy. Spending cutbacks could be become contagious. Leaving out the working poor with little discretionary spending, the amount of discretionary spending by millions of middle class Americans with ample disposable income is sufficient to threaten economic growth and the economy. A major reason is that there is a large "multiplier" associated with consumer spending, meaning that every dollar spent has a large ripple or cumulative impact through various sectors of the economy. One person's spending is another's (actually many others') income. The multiplier can range from four to six. For example, cut consumer spending by $250 billion and it can easily reduce the national GDP by $1 trillion. If the middle class does not soon use its consumer spending power, it will surely lose it as its discretionary income evaporates, because the war against will be won by the Upper Class.
Economic civil disobedience for the foreseeable future has much more power to change our nation for the better than the political act of non-voting. The goal of the economic strategy is to obtain enough reforms and improvements in the political system to restore the effectiveness of voting at some later time. Now, in our perverse society, dollars are more powerful agents of change than votes. In truth, as has been evident for many years, we cannot vote ourselves out of a corrupt, oppressive and delusional democracy that uses military and economic weapons of mass devastation on a global scale for the benefit of elites, while pretending to be the world's best democracy. The truth of all this defines the case for a populist Second American Revolution. We must motivate some millions of Americans that are so fed up with current conditions that they will eagerly join a loose network of American Insurgents for Democracy, not fighting with weapons in the streets, but by withholding their dollars from the economy.
Hundreds of public opinion polls in recent years have supplied all the evidence one could want to demonstrate the terrible state of American democracy, so awful and disgraceful that it is justifiably called delusional, because it no longer is what people think it is. Yet people keep out the pain of admitting that their democracy is no longer great, even though they have little confidence in politicians and their parties. The latest stark public appraisal of politicians was the New York Times/CBS poll conducted earlier this month. Among its findings was that 69 percent of people think that members of congress consider themselves above the law; 70 percent believe that most members of congress do not understand the needs and problems of people like them; and 36 percent believe that Republicrooks in congress are more corrupt than Democraps, 17 percent believe the reverse, and 27 percent think both are equally corrupt – adding up to 80 percent seeing a corrupt congress. You might expect such public opinion statistics of some blatantly faux foreign democracy, not the United States of America.
Another interesting reality is a statistic determined about the recent primary elections nationwide. The Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University found that just 15 percent of eligible voters went to the polls for primary elections. Just 15 percent!
Some people would be depressed by this figure. I see it very positively. Curtis Gans, the director of the study, concluded "People are becoming increasingly disaffected with both parties." Amen. But people are more than disaffected. They are mad as hell. Yet few see a way out of this national morass.
Our political elites and plutocrats can easily ignore low turnout for primaries. But contemplate how a really low turnout for general elections would be treated. Imagine a presidential election with a national turnout of say 20 or 25 percent. Such low eligible voter turnout would publicly de-legitimize our delusional democracy. How could any American president that had a majority of something like 15 percent or less of all eligible voters be viewed as legitimate? Our representative democracy would be seen worldwide as a sham. Many Americans would conclude "enough is enough."
More people must agree that there is nothing sacred about two-party rule. Bipartisanship is just a ploy to make the two-party conspiracy more palatable. Democraps and Republicrooks have a political partnership. Each needs the other to maintain the optical delusion that we have political choices, and that when one fails the people, the other will come to the rescue. We cannot vote our way to national renewal as long as we play according to their status quo rules. Our democracy is choking to death on bipartisan corruption. Only independent-minded Americans can apply a Heimlich maneuver to save it.
Divided, we empower the plutocracy with our money and our votes.
United, we can deliver a peaceful, disobedient and populist Second American Revolution by withholding our money and our votes. We have it in our power to make Thoreau, Gandhi, King and future generations proud of us.
What is true American patriotism today? Our sick democracy needs dissent through disobedience, not our votes, to become healthy.
Joel S. Hirschhorn is the author of Delusional Democracy - Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government (www.delusionaldemocracy.com). His current political writings have been greatly influenced by working as a senior staffer for the U.S. Congress and for the National Governors Association. He advocates a Second American Revolution, beginning with an Article V Convention to propose constitutional amendments. He is Chair of the Independent Party of Maryland.
In addition to cable TV, what other industries should concerned Americans suspend their support for, in order to have the biggest impact?
Limiting discretionary spending is a great idea for many reasons. Besides the reasons in the article, alot of middle class Americans are in massive amounts of credit card debt. If people limited their spending, they could put money toward paying off debt, or into savings.
This could really work if enough people joined in. Great article.
by
Amanda Butler (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 21 comments)
on Monday, October 16, 2006 at 2:37:31 PM
First, as to consumer debt, the facts should depress everyone: In 1980 household debt, including mortgages, car loans and other borrowing, was $1.4 trillion. Guess what it was in 2005? It had skyrocketed some 745 percent to $11.8 trillion. In 1980 credit card debt totaled $69 billion. Guess what it was in 2005? It had mushroomed to an amazing $1.8 trillion - a 2,500 percent increase! In 1980 credit card debt was just 5 percent of household debt; by 2005 it had tripled to 15 percent.
So, shifting money from non-essential spending to paying off debt is truly a win-win tactic; because it reduces revenues to the financial sector.
As to other sectors, broadly distributing reduced spending among all kinds of services and products has merit. Avoiding spending on big ticket items has the most impact on the national economy - like keeping an old car rather than buying a new one; ditto for computers, clothes, home furnishings, etc.
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Joel S. Hirschhorn (133 articles, 37 quicklinks, 60 diaries, 533 comments)
on Monday, October 16, 2006 at 3:44:27 PM
If ten million cable TV subscribers wanted Bush and Cheney to resign badly enough to cancel their cable TV subscriptions until it happened, it would happen so quickly that they'd only miss one or two episodes of their favorite shows.
You're right, Joel. It isn't just withdrawing our financial support for a system that isn't serving us, it is that the economy is so weak that it couldn't take a hit like that.
But the Democratic Party won't do it. It would have to come from the grassroots. And it would have to be a coordinated effort by large groups like the Progressive Democrats, Move On, Common Cause and all the peace groups, 9/11 Truth groups, and everyone who opposes torture, wants to restore civil liberties and doesn't want Bush to be the decider anymore.
Cancelling cable TV subscriptions wouldn't just effect the cable TV companies, but also the TV channels they carry, their advertisers, their banks, and the consumer confidence index.
We'd just have to pick a large corporation that is big enough to tell the government what to do. Any corporation, so long as it is big enough. If ten million people sent the following letter, and actually cancelled their cable TV subscriptions, Bush and Cheney would be told to resign immediately. No impeachment necessary.
Dear Big Corporation CEO:
I want George Bush and Dick Cheney to resign.
I have cancelled my cable TV subscription and will not renew it until this happens.
Respectfully,
Joe Citizen
Withdrawing that much money from the economy would cause a sharp drop in the consumer confidence index. We could send copies of our letters to the media so that they knew what was going on, even if they didn't cover it. Once we took control of the economy, we would be the ones who could tell government what to do instead of the big corporations. We'd only have to do it once, to show that we mean business, and from then on we'd be taken seriously and our representatives would have no choice but to listen to us. If they didn't, their corporate owners would remind them that they can't afford to anger us again.
Not even the Republicans could pass a law making it illegal for anyone to not subscribe to cable TV. How much more damage are we going to let this administration and their collaborators in Congress do? It doesn't matter who wins the November elections if Bush still holds the veto.
It doesn't matter where the letter goes. It could go to a big corporation, to the media, to Congress, or to the White House itself. What is important is that enough people want Bush and Cheney out to make the sacrifice. If you have cable, just cancel it and tell your friends to do the same. Tell them that you're not resubscribing until Bush and Cheney step down. Post it everywhere you can. Tell every group that you belong to what you're doing, why you're doing it, and why it will work if enough people do it.
If you have a package that includes phone, broadband, and TV, you might consider cancelling the whole thing. You can get a straight phone plan and a straight broadband plan without having to include cable TV. I may even go back to dial-up. It really isn't that much slower, the savings are enormous, and I can watch most videos by getting the DVD instead of streaming them online. Besides, it isn't forever, just until our demands are met and Bush and Cheney resign. Once Bush no longer holds the veto and whoever steps in (no, it won't be Hastert, as he is in too much trouble right now) knows that the same thing could happen to them if they step out of line, we can restore habeus corpus, make torture illegal again, and anything else we want to do.
Elections don't work, Congress isn't representing us, and if we want Bush and Cheney out, we have to force them out. We can do it legally, nonviolently, and quickly, but simply cancelling our cable TV subscriptions and asking everyone we know who wants Bush and Cheney out to do the same. Yes, it is a sacrifice, but nothing's free. You get what you pay for, and if we keep paying for Bush and Cheney, that's what we'll continue to get.
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Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments)
on Sunday, October 15, 2006 at 4:46:32 AM
Thanks for your great ideas. Money is power. Corporations and other special interests know that and practice that. But the biggest schmucks are consumers that let their money work against their own interests - beyond immediate gratification, that is. Notice the talk in the business community this past week: how terrific that consumers able to spend less on gas just shifted their money to buying consumer goods.
by
Joel S. Hirschhorn (133 articles, 37 quicklinks, 60 diaries, 533 comments)
on Sunday, October 15, 2006 at 11:40:20 AM
4 comments
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