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The Unwelcome and Unplanned Fight Against Materialism Has Shifted into Overdrive [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-09
One of the most rewarding activities for Americans in the last 50 years has been shopping. Retail therapy competed with psychological counseling and religious observance to become a potent form of psychological and spiritual healing. When the going got rough, Americans went shopping to reduce their worries and anxieties.
But with tariffs exploding on imported goods and their prices likely to skyrocket, this form of therapy is about to go out of fashion more from necessity than from personal preference.
What does a culture largely based on materialism do when the material becomes unaffordable?
Will “less is more” and “small is beautiful” become mainstream? Will concern for religion and the afterlife replace the space formerly allotted to shopping and buying? Will the feeling of independence and freedom that formerly came from asceticism and self-denial substitute for the happiness that was lost at the checkout counters at Walmart and Target?
The other possibility is that Americans will turn against the leader and the party that promised prosperity and then put them in poverty and unable to afford the many small luxuries that were available in the very recent past. And just as everyday items get more expensive, Social Security checks are less dependable while Medicare may no longer pay expensive medical bills for retirees as DOGE declares war on “wasteful and fraudulent” government agencies.
The President is asking for patience and urging people to “stay calm” as his “day one” fantasies and promises of cheaper prices and more wealth fade from memory. Funny how he never advised staying calm when Biden’s economy was roaring along.
Staying claim is not what he wants as he stokes fears of a Mexican invasion of “illegals” coming to the US. But he also wants people to stay calm about extending the multi-trillion tax cuts to the wealthy which he and his party desperately want.
The message is: only get upset about what he wants you to get upset about and ignore the actual negative things he does that directly affect you and your social and economic well-being.
But Americans are not known for their patience with new leaders. They will not give up their access to cheap goods, retirement incomes, and medical insurance in their old age without pushing back and objecting.
The political right who criticized the “woke” people are about to awaken from sleep themselves and discover the unpleasant economic world that has been created for them by their esteemed leader while their eyes were closed.
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