Reflections From a Murky Pond

Happy Retail Season, One and All! 👿 That’s right; retail season, not Christmas season – and, at this point, we’re deep in it, with only 17 shopping days left. So, forget about our nation’s domestic enemies’ war on Christmas; and too, accept that Christians lost that war before the Left ever engaged in it. Understand the true meaning of this holiday – spending, spending, spending.

Think about it.  Christmas holiday sales comprise about 19% of the retail industries’ total sales in any given year, resulting a bit over 700 thousand “seasonal employees” being hired throughout the US to handle the holiday rush of consumers eager to the point of danger to buy stuff.

And please, don’t forget that we have to buy the decorations too.  It’s just not Christmas without a house full of decorations made by migrant laborers in a Chinese sweatshop.

Tags: America | Christ | Christians | Christmas | Christmas Shopping | Consumerism | Holidays | Materialism | Shopping | Spending

This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2018 at 11:08 am and is filed under Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Christmas, Yule, or Chanukah – no matter your holiday – are not the problem in America but how most “celebrate” these holidays is certainly a major symptom of the pathology that is plaguing American society and, resultantly, politics.

Buy All The Things!

The disease or syndrome in question is, of course, rampant materialism and consumerism. It’s the root cause of almost every ill that torments America and it is a progressive illness.

Simply and sadly put, American society has not only forgotten what is important but has seemingly deprecated the importance and value of that which is immaterial. Worse, this disease’s symptoms become even more pronounced during the ever-expanding holiday season, which is now better- and more often described as the holiday shopping season, which accounts annually for 20% – 40% of the average American retailers’ total annual sales.

To put this is horrific perspective, The National Retail Federation (NRF) expects retail sales during the 2013 holiday shopping season to marginally increase 3.9% to $602.1 billion which is greater than the total GDP of 167 of the 188 nations tracked my the International Monetary Fund (IMF). So, in 33 days, Americans spend more on purchases than 166 countries make in a year. Only 20, other than the US, make more en toto per year than we spend during this time.

If this isn’t a symptom of a chronic and eventually lethal societal pathology I don’t know what is.

Tags: America | Christmas | Class Warfare | Consumerism | Disease | Economics | Economy | GDP | Holidays | IMF | Materialism | Mental Illness | Pathology | Politics | Religion | Shopping | Society

This entry was posted on Monday, December 16th, 2013 at 11:40 am and is filed under Politics, Religion, Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

There are a plethora of problems, failures, and issues with the Liberals’ and Progressives’ economic agenda. In fact, there are so many of them that it beggars credulity that anyone of a serious bent and possessed of a real education would take them seriously. All these problems, however, stem from the same root cause and that can be addressed simply.

The entire Leftist economic dogma is based upon a philosophy that I describe as Egalitarian Consumerism.

Egalitarian Consumerism

Function: noun

Date: 2013

Definition(s):

1. a belief that people are intrinsically equal and, therefor, deserve equal access to all material goods and services.

And therein lies the core of the problem. The Liberals and Progressives may stridently complain about capitalism, corporations, and America’s consumer culture but they’re entire economic agenda is directly and irrevocably tied to just those things. They don’t want to put an end to these things; they just want everyone to be able to have all the same stuff, whether they’ve earned the privilege of doing so or not.

There are a plethora of problems, failures, and issues with the Liberals’ and Progressives’ economic agenda. In fact, there are so many of them that it beggars credulity that anyone of a serious bent and possessed of a real education would take them seriously. All these problems, however, stem from the same root cause and that can be addressed simply. The entire Leftist economic dogma is based upon a philosophy that I describe as Egalitarian Consumerism.

One need only look at who they claim are poor, or at how the Liberals and Progressives have created a permanent “underclass” based upon a relative scale, to see this as being the truth.

And therein lies the core of the problem. The Liberals and Progressives may stridently complain about capitalism, corporations, and America’s consumer culture but they’re entire economic agenda is directly and irrevocably tied to just those things. They don’t want to put an end to these things; they just want everyone to be able to have all the same stuff, whether they’ve earned the privilege of doing so or not.”

This in a nation where one of the common, recurring complaints of these same Leftists is that “the poor” are overfed to the point of morbid obesity!

No. The Left is all about stuff. Worldly goods are their primary concern – so much so, in fact, they will scream at the top of their lungs that it’s unfair that some few people can buy so much more useless crap than others can and achieve a material quality of existence better than others can.

What’s far worse is that they cling to the dictates of Egalitarian Consumerism with such fanatical devotion that they honestly don’t care if the only way that they can achieve this is to lower the overall material wealth of the nation to a point where the the lowest economic classes are no longer considered “underprivileged.”

Tags: America | Consumerism | Egalitarian Consumerism | Egalitarianism | Liberals | Money | Politics | Progressives | Society | Wealth

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 15th, 2013 at 8:19 am and is filed under Politics, Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

A simple but profound and profoundly important parable:

SON: “Daddy, may I ask you a question?”
DAD: “Yeah sure, what is it?”
SON: “Daddy, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD: “That’s none of your business. Why do you think you should ask such a thing?”
SON: “I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?”
DAD: “If you must know, I make $100 an hour.”
SON: “Oh! (With his head down). Daddy, may I please borrow $50 from you?”

The father was furious.

DAD: “If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior.”

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $ 50 and he really didn’t ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.

DAD: “Are you asleep, son?”

SON: “No daddy, I’m awake”.
DAD: “I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier. It’s been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here’s the $50 you asked for.”

The little boy sat straight up, smiling.

SON: “Oh, thank you daddy!”

Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.

DAD: “Why do you want more money if you already have some?”
SON: “Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do. Daddy, I have $100 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness.

This is just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.

Do remember to share that $100 worth of your time with someone you love? If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family and friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family.

Some things are more important.

You might want to think about this because, not only is it relevant to many of our personal situations, it’s the core of much of what is wrong in America. We have across all the economic quintiles mistaken money and things for wealth and shifted our priorities accordingly … to the ruination of our society.

Tags: America | Children | Class Warfare | Consumerism | Family | Life | Money | Parenting | Society | Wealth | Work

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 27th, 2013 at 8:15 am and is filed under Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Obama’s handlers were really hoping that the Christmas shopping season would spike consumerism, create seasonal jobs that they could boast of, and put a bit of cheer into America’s economy and, much more importantly to them, the boy’s reelection chances.

I Got It! I Got It! Damn! I Don’t Got It!

Sadly for them and their Campaigner-in-Chief, all indicators show that they didn’t make Santa’s nice list and we, the People chose to do what they refuse to – live more closely within our means.

Forget them getting such a present this holiday season. Given Obama’s and his handlers’ professed hatred for American produced fuel sources, they won’t even be getting a lump of coal this Christmas. 😛

Tags: America | Christmas | Consumerism | Economy | Employment | Humor | Jobs | Obama | Politics | Responsibility | Unemployment

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 11th, 2011 at 9:35 am and is filed under Humor, Politics. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.