make do and mend
Which bit of ‘boom & bust’ do politicians (of all persuasions) not get? Ah, the same bit of the fact that they can’t bring themselves to admit we’re in the worst double-dip depression for over fifty years.
Now, as I’ve described a couple of times in the past I like stuff as much as the next consumer – I’ve more bikes than I can ride in a (working) week, more watches than I can wear in a calendar one and more guitars than I can play…because I can’t play any of them. Boom, boom. It’s obvious that when asked to shop I have dutifully done so until I did indeed drop. And look where it’s got us all? In the sticky stuff, both individually and collectively. So, it’s with some incredulity that I see the political elite are now arguing that demand needs to be stimulated and positively encouraged. Apparently, we need to be made to feel confident about going out to splash the cash, about buying stuff. Again.
Davey-Boy may bluster about how the coalition has had to pick up the pieces of a broken economy after an unsustainable boom but what he fails to grasp, or chooses not to tell us, is the complete contradiction and hypocrisy of his argument. In a nationwide ‘calm down, dears’ he wants us to relax and feel good about spending whilst chiding us all about how it was our relaxed and profligate nature that got us in the pickle in the first place. Doh.
Is it just me or does it seem pretty obvious that it’s the consumer society that’s ultimately unsustainable? In any event, how much is enough?
Sure, ‘things’ is important. Craftsmanship and quality are important. Form and function are important. Beauty and creativity are important. But the need to stimulate demand via rampant consumerism means that it’s imperative to discard the old and buy the new, throw away the tried and tested for the innovative and modern, to buy at all costs. That’s the growth the politicians crave, even as they berate us for doing it in the first place. Personally, I will continue to darn my socks (yesterday), mend my squash shorts when they rip (last week) and dismantle/reassemble the hedge trimmer when I slice through the power cable (last month). Mind, Ed Balls and George Osborne can both sleep easy in their beds, as I will continue to buy (outright) expensive things: things that I believe have a true value and real quality to them. But for the rest I’ll make do and mend, clean, polish & oil, conserve and look after.
