The Yin and Yang of American Capitalism

Too much yang for the yin? -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
I'm guessing that Jupiter must have aligned with Mars. Last month, Mark Davis criticized the Bush Administration and the prospects for the war in Iraq. Davis, a writer for the Dallas Morning News, was previously the President of the Bush Fan Club -- loving to love Bush. Now Rob Dreher, another DMN staff writer, has come out with an essay critical of capitalism, He says unbridled capitalism is as much a danger to conservative values as big government. Dreher is a close second to Davis in the League of Bush Love. He's extremely conservative so his take on this topic is unusual to say the least.

Dreher himself is reviewing a book by Benjamin Barber titled Consumed. Dreher basically says that capitalism’s dynamic has a "yin" and a "yang". The yin is that capitalism encourages creativity, innovation and productivity. The yang is that capitalism also promotes consumerism -- there has to be a collective appetite to devour and enjoy all those goodies at Best Buy, Crate and Barrel and Home Depot. If we were all miserly skin flints, the merchandise would go begging and the system would collapse. Not to worry, it seems we don't have the problem at all -- somewhat the opposite. Americans are greedy consumers and for the first time since 1933, we actually have a negative savings rate -- we spend more than we earn. Dreher likens it to a pyramid scheme that will surely collapse upon itself if our free-spending ways are not corrected. It seems you have to have something called "balance" between the yin and the yang.

I'm 49, and spent much of my adulthood scrimping and saving. I still drive a 6-year old Toyota, live in a small house and have hand-me-down furniture. Silly me -- I also have a reserve in my bank account and could certainly live higher on the hog if I didn't mind being leveraged out the wazoo. Imagine my surprise when I meet 25-year-olds who fully expect to drive a new Lexus and live in a 400K City Home Townhouse furnished by Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware. Where do they get these expectations if not from Boomer parents who set the standard, or should we say lower the bar? I've wondered how you can truly appreciate what's simply laid in your lap. Now I wonder, if Dreher's premise is correct, how many Americans are using material goods as a type of narcotic -- a narcotic that numbs them to the future realities of retirement and old age health care.

Right now, I'd like a 2007 Toyota Tacoma Pickup truck, a 72-inch HDTV and a Crate and Barrel living room. I'd like to follow that with a sumptuous dinner at Three Forks and a limousine ride. I'm sure I would enjoy those things, and in a slow-paced fashion I just might. My credit rating would allow me to do it all tonight, but my "yin/yang" mentality tells me "no, no, no and no". Does that make me a big cheap-ass? Well to a typical young American, probably so. Dumb, silly, cheap pretty me. I'll take Dreher's article as a warning. When Dreher and Davis are laying it all on the line, I have to listen up. And Americans with their negative saving patterns better balance the yang with a little more yin.

© 2007 blogSpotter