April 9, 2016
I
ran across an article on Secular Stagnation the other day. As I understand it
(and I probably don’t), it seems like, if people are happy with what they’ve
got, and don’t buy a lot of stuff, the economy stagnates. Even putting money
into savings is bad under this theory, because nobody’s producing anything, so
nobody’s working, so we’d better get on the stick and start creating demand for
stuff, whether we need it or not.
Not
that I have a lot of spare change lying around right now, but apparently enough
people do to make the author of the article nervous.
So
I’m thinking, “Instead of thinking up more junk for people to buy, Why not repair
a bridge? Or give money to a zoo?”
Crowdsourcing is big these days. I won’t give a stranger money to go on
her dream vacation, but I might feed a zebra, or pitch in to fill a pothole.
And
my new purchase wouldn’t clutter up the house; I wouldn’t have to dust it; and
I wouldn’t have to figure out what to do with it when I got tired of it.
And
if we played our cards right, we could deduct the money from our taxes, on the
grounds that it’s going where our tax dollars should be going, but aren’t.
Just
a thought.
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