Wall St versus Main St: Occupied with poor consumerism

Main Street has much more power than it thinks, it just doesn't know how to use it.

If the 99 percent were richer, would they buy more fuel efficient vehicles?

There is no doubt that the wealth gap between the rich and the poor continues to increase, but solely blaming Wall Street and the 1 percenters of society is only a partial solution to addressing this problem. Moreover, as Occupiers blame the 1 percent, they use tools like iPhones and Facebook — technologies that increase the power of the 1 percent — to broadcast their blame. In fact, anyone that doesn’t realize that Facebook is potentially the most dangerous corporate ‘machine’ ever created is a bit naive.

And that has me wondering about consumerism and the self-defeating role average Americans contribute towards the wealth gap. For example, say average Americans were wealthier, would the sales of hybrid cars, or at least other fuel efficient vehicles, be significantly higher?

I doubt it. 9/11 wasn’t enough to make US car consumers more responsible. Nor was the gas spike of 2008. We don’t care about the atrocities that our oil addiction has created outside the US.

Perhaps a few percent more Americans would be buying hybrids and EVs if they had greater wealth, but if gas prices hurt less due to extra income, I’d bet most Americans would rather buy more luxury and horsepower, not fuel efficiency. In fact, most Americans would buy as much car as they could afford, or probably, more car than they could afford.

And, while Occupiers might cite the likes of Warren Buffett as an example of 1 percenter responsibility, Mr. Buffett isn’t just a proponent of a greater tax on the rich, he’s also called America’s addiction to new cars one of the worst financial moves that average Americans can make. Yet, it’s a bad move Americans love to make, and much of our economy — via the auto industry and related jobs — is basically built upon this unhealthy automotive addiction.

Now, I’m not arguing that the wealth divide is a good thing because it tempers our collective irresponsible consumerism. The wealth gap is neither good nor fair. Nevertheless, everyday Americans are doing many things to hurt themselves, and it’s not just about poor car buying habits.

Instead of exercising, for instance, more Americans would rather Facebook and subscribe to cable TV. This couch potato attitude coupled with our poor eating habits is literally killing Americans. But it’s not the people’s fault, it’s greedy pharmaceutical and insurance companies that are to be solely blamed. Certainly, pharmaceutical and insurance companies are often greedy and blameworthy, but as consumers, we make it far too easy for these corporations to take advantage of us.

Furthermore, the 1 percenters also deserve serious and significant blame for spending billions and billions and billions and billions on marketing campaigns that have turned Americans into consumer zombies that are making the rich richer at the poor’s expense. Ex-GM car tsar Bob Lutz once stated that GM could have spent a fraction of one year’s multi-billion dollar marketing budget to make a hybrid car like the Toyota Prius before Toyota. Instead, GM decided new ads for gas guzzlers were more important.

Still, we the people, have more power to affect our lives than we seem, or want, to believe. In many ways, we are the problem and the solution.

Unfortunately, today the well-intentioned — I think — Occupy movement claims that Wall Street is ground zero because they are the ones that own today’s politicians. OK. So, shitting on the 1 percent’s stoop is the key to solving this problem? The key to making them change their ways?

I doubt it. In fact, just Facebook that idea over and over using your iPhone and the 1 percenters — the investor class — will laugh all the way to the bank. I mean whom else can afford to buy $400 shares of Apple stock? Whom else can afford to invest in startups like Facebook? Whom else is going to win big, to the tune of tens — even hundreds — of billions when Facebook goes public?

Honestly, hasn’t it been technology — and the shiny new things we love to buy — that has significantly helped increase the income gap? The income gap has been growing for decades, not just since the 2008 crash. Had the economy not collapsed a few years ago, the income gap would still be growing today.

Ultimately, it seems to me, the only way that Main St and the 99 percent can influence Wall St is through smart consumerism and voting against any politician that takes money from the 1 percenters. However, if Occupiers try to make this a partisan political movement, they might end up creating an even bigger income gap by dividing the 99 percent, as division is the key to being conquered — something I wish hardcore members of the left and right from the 99 percent would think about more.

Regardless, even if the Occupy movement fails politically, smart consumerism is something almost every American can practice almost every day. Hopefully the Occupy movement tries to take better advantage of the weapon smart consumerism offers, rather than just becoming another tool of our greedy and inefficient partisan political system.