That number represents, apparently, the amount of money Americans spend every year on stuff we don’t actually need. And, of course, you can take that one bit of particular information any way you like: even the article that it comes from manages to use it to argue both for the inherent power of capitalism and for the need of a value-added tax.
On the other hand, Instapundit’s reader is right: Best Buy is a toy store for adults (I paraphrase). Which is another, I’ve-had-some-wine way of saying that the aforementioned 1.2 trillion being pumped into the economy could easily disappear if people get worried enough.
Moe Lane
Of course, the question is whether we actually “need” anything beyond a cave to live in, an animal skin to dress in and some raw meat to eat. It was good enough for our ancestors, after all — anything beyond that is just a luxury, a mere ‘want’ that we could do without.
Amen, Kyle. Worse, Mark Whitehouse has decided that balance needs to be “restored” in favor of education and heath, specifically, and the VAT can do that. More European nanny statism, this time from the WSJ. What if (and believe me, this is a big what-if) we stopped trying to rescue people that aren’t interested in being rescued? What if we abandon the educational cesspools that certain segments of the population tolerate and create? Or stop giving handouts to those whose lives are defined by promiscuity, substance abuse and violence?
It’s not the government’s business, right or duty to intervene in how I spend my money. But if they really wanted to stop stupid, wasteful PRIVATE spending (asking them to stop stupid public spending is a bridge too far), then how about prohibiting state run lotteries? Or is reducing any govt hand in our wallets another bridge too far?
I’ll take it a level deeper: it’s about moral sovereignty over your own life. Do you get to choose your own values and guide your own actions by your own judgment, and take the consequences, or do the ruling class get to dictate your values, override your judgment, force your actions and leave you to suffer the consequences of their errors, ignorance and malice?
Who owns your life, you or them? We know what they think. They’ve made it abundantly clear. What do you think? And more importantly what are you going to do about it?