Beyond Shop til’ we Drop | Lefty Parent

Beyond Shop til’ we Drop | Lefty Parent

Beyond Shop til’ we Drop

by Cooper Zale

I’m thinking about the sluggish US economy and trying to do the math. Seventy percent of our economy is based on consumer spending… rich seem to be getting richer and more of everyone else are falling into economic distress. Do all of us with disposable income need to go back to “shopping til’ we drop” and buying stuff we don’t need to make our economy grow again and move people out of that economic distress? There’s got to be a different path forward that leverages some sort of “less is more” principles. Can we somehow shift our economy from being based on private overconsumption and perhaps redirect it more towards building say more shared public infrastructure?

I as always, apply my hierarchy vs circle of equals frame of reference to these issues. My thinking generally is that we, as a species, have reached a phase in our individual and collective (cultural) development where we are transitioning (sometime three steps forward and two back) from lords, monarchs, bosses, (even experts?) etc to a more level and egalitarian relationship with each other. My “ministry” is all about calling out and facilitating that transition and doing what I can to not get “stuck” in conventional wisdom and the path of least resistance.

So given my agenda, I tend to look at issues through a lens that puts a premium on facilitating our freedom and development versus limiting that freedom and directing our development. So applying this lens to economics