A Leftard Contradiction

I posted this on my Facebook page, and I am reposting here.

I will never understand left wing people. They tell us we are a nation of consumers, and this is unsustainable at least in environmental terms but also as a matter of common sense. But then, they support Obama and his Keynesian fallacy that the way to improve the economy is to spend spend spend. We have to stimulate that aggregate demand. In other words, our economy went to shit because people bought houses they couldn't afford. The McMansion economy imploded. The left wing answer? Stimulate demand for McMansions and other consumer items. The mind boggles.

I like environmentalists. I don't know if their prescriptions for living make much sense in the big scheme of things, but it makes perfect sense in the personal scheme. They want to consume less and waste less, so they end up spending less. This results in greater savings. It is a circuitous route to thrift, but it is thrift nonetheless. Fuel efficient cars cost less at the pump. Modest homes are cheaper to buy and maintain. Reusing old stuff is cheaper than buying new. Using solar and wind at home saves on the electric bill. The only dumb things enviros do is buy organic and recycle trash that will end up in a landfill anyway. The rest is damn smart. Environmentalists are like the Amish. They are deluded, but the delusion is useful.

Simple living works. Like it or not, this recession has been very good from an environmentalist viewpoint. People are consuming less. They are driving less. They are changing their thermostat settings and switching to energy saving bulbs. They are using things longer and fixing old things instead of buying new.

Why do people waste things? The answer to that is simple. When money and credit are cheap, people buy. Their tastes get extravagant. They want more, bigger, new, and better. In short, these people respond exactly to the Keynesian prescription of low interest rates and stimulus spending. People become prudent when money is harder to come by, and the interest rates are high.

If you believe in the environment, simple living, and sustainability, then you should oppose Keynesian prescriptions for our ailing economy. You should be glad that people are saving instead of spending. You should applaud thrift and an end to easy credit. You should be happy that suburban sprawl has ceased, and people are opting to rent and live closer to the city. But you continue to support Obama and his economic policies. Why?

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