Jim Hite

Has a certain television commercial that began airing a few months ago struck you as it has me? The commercial is the one using the phrase: "I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it NOW!"

I obviously do not know how it struck others, but for some reason it has struck a chord with me. And right on the heels of this sentiment, along comes the recent roller coaster ride of the stock market and the economy and our government's response to this economic situation. This response has, in my mind, tied the commercial to recent events.

It's fascinating that what happens in our country affects so drastically the economic situation in the rest of the world. We are a power, there is no doubt. If there is an economic downturn here and Americans stop buying, the rest of the world shudders. When we consume, when we buy, our economy and that of the rest of the world hum along.

How bad things are today, I don't pretend to know for certain. I can surmise all is not good. While we all have an opinion, whether it is a recession, the beginning of one, or just a minor bump, is for the experts to decide.

What I find interesting is our government's (both Republicans and Democrats) response: a rebate program with a price tag of $100-150 billion that will put dollars into our hands so we can spend them and boost the nation's economic engine. As I read it, this is in addition to the $555 billion budget for the fiscal year.

As a nation, we are long past the too few budget surpluses that appeared briefly in the 1990s. Now, in a time of heavy deficit spending, the plan is to add to the deficit in order to get the economy to rebound.

Discussion, of course, abounds on whether it will work or not. With so many people already in debt, will the money be spent on things ("want it now") or will it be used to pay off personal debt or put into savings, neither of which will affect the economic engine.

It's a far cry from the simple life expounded by Henry David Thoreau and those in our country who are calling for a slowdown in our consumption. For we, as a nation, are a consumer society. We don't make things last, we buy newer and newer and throw away the older. And as we have seen and are seeing now, if we do not consume, the economy slumbers.

As many of you know, we were in Honolulu last month and visited Pearl Harbor. Just before the end of December, we visited our nation's Capitol and spent time at Arlington Cemetery. Both reminded me of what it was like in World War II. Many of you can also remember rationing of food, meat, fuel. You remember the nation's factories, steel mills, and auto manufacturers turning out Jeeps and tanks, not consumer goods.

Now let's fast forward to January, 2008. These memories of WWII bring to mind a statement made by a Marine some four years ago from his post in Iraq. It came during a discussion about the war and its effect on the home front, when it was noted that there does not seem to be any spirit of sacrifice among our citizens, even with the cost of the conflict in the billions and men and women dying daily. This Marine was quoted in the press: "America is not at war. The Marines are at war. America is at the mall."

And soon we'll be there, with our rebate.