Neil has made a video, 'Habits of the Good Consumer' to support the notion of spending a day without shopping - a concept that probably strikes fear into the wallet of Alastair Darling, whose main concern seems to be to encourage us all to spend, spend, spend. Of course, we assume that there is a difference between not buying and not spending. Even if I don't go out and get my Saturday cup of coffee, I will still be spending, as the gas and electricity companies have so kindly recently reminded me.
Although everyone keeps talking about consumer confidence and cite the index as proof of what is really happening to us economically, it is interesting to note that this index is based pretty much on sentiment. That is not to discount what it does, or its implications - but the data are pretty soft. One thousand people a month are interviewed - and their answers to questions like, 'Is now a good time to make a major purchase such as a house or a car?' are used in the calculation. By the way, I think the answer to the question is, 'Yes, completely, if you've got cash!' So these thousand people are then supposed to be representative of the general population as a whole. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. It is quite good, I suppose, to ask, 'How confident are you, that if you buy something using borrowing, that you can pay it back with no problems?'
But confidence is a strange thing to measure. What if they happen only to ask depressed people?Maybe their answers might be too negative. Or what if there's a high proportion of depressed people (as a real result of the nowyouseeit, nowyoudon't recession) who are on anti-depressants and thus have an unnaturally buoyant view of things? And what is it we should measure when we decide to buy, say, non-essential items? Is it really confidence? To me, it's more complex and weird than that. I can remember getting my first job and earning money. When I went to the chemist and bought four different very expensive perfumes, it wasn't confidence I felt, more a kind of life-affirming rush. It created in me the feeling that I really was someone, and sadly, it still does. When I go to the library and buy a cup of coffee to drink, it really tastes different because someone has made me that coffee and I have paid for it. I feel like a member of society. Handing over money is a wonderful thing to be able to do. I have at various times of my life been without it, and the overwhelming feeling that I had for most of that time, (apart from hunger) was of being excluded, of not being a member of a club that everyone else was in. I would walk down the high-street and feel like a child on the outside, looking in, watching all the pretty girls and suave-looking men coming out with their bags. Now I know a bit more, I know that a large proportion of these will be actually paying for their goods with dream money. I do occasionally even feel slightly validated by not-spending.
We shoppers owe more than £1.5 trillion in personal debt. What has this actually given us? Well for some of us, that money went on essentials - I used my credit card to fund motherhood. Not exactly responsible you might say, but then I strongly believe that I am bringing up future citizens of the world, and I want them to have a good bond with me. I wanted to be around for the first few years of their lives, rather than go out to work, which it seems is what the government would have preferred. There is plenty of research showing that children benefit from their mother's presence in their early years (or, the continued and stable presence of an adult whom they feel safe with.) So, while a childminder might do, or another family member, I felt that they would benefit most from being around me. Also, motherhood is a funny thing: um, I just plain wanted to be with them. However, time with my children means in effect that I am constantly being pressured to buy (or, consume?) an almost endless stream of plastic crap that is impossible to keep working, keep together or even dispose of responsibly.
Sharing, swapping, repairing, fixing, even creating - all of these are things that can really help to hold off the plastic crap consumption. I feel personally, that as a mother whose child-rearing skills and responsiblities are completely unacknowledged by my government that we should all be engaging in far more barter and skills-swapping. Let's stop all that money flowing around, and the government skimming off tax with every transaction, and start keeping some of the taxes for ourselves. Until I get paid for being a mum who is doing her best to bring up happy, fair-minded children and turn them into reasonable young adults, I will do my best, not to spend money doing this, and to exchange skills with others instead.
On the other hand, I would also quite like to encourage the creation of a day that acknowledges the sacrifices that parents make - and no doubt this would be completely cashed in on by merchandising companies if such a thing were ever to take off. And I would want a cut. Oh and can we have a plastic crap consumption index, too please?
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