Almost all of our religious holidays have been hijacked by consumerism. This Christmas season is sure to see the majority of people taking on more personal debt. Canadians owe $1.47 for every dollar of disposable income. Credit card companies charge loan shark interest rates. Our economy relies upon our conspicuous consumption to roll along. With our resources quickly running out, it is obvious that something has to change drastically because our current strategy is not sustainable.
When you consider the how much money the credit card companies are charging for interest, it is easy to see who is paying the ultimate price. Most lower income families have to resort to using their credit card whenever any extraordinary household expense pops up. Since they’re already living from paycheque to paycheque (60% of Canadians do), they have to carry that credit card balance. The high interest rate they are paying guarantees longterm debt for them and record profits for the the credit card companies.
I’m not sure how to fix a system that continues to rely upon the underprivileged to maintain it unless we can convince people to redefine their definition of quality of life to represent their happiness, not what they own.
“The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied... but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing.” - John Berger (b. 1926)
No comments:
Post a Comment