priorities

it’s that time of year where folks have to scrape to come up with ideas for gifts for other folks. it’s a real problem here in america- gifting. why? it isn’t that americans aren’t generous- it’s that gifts have gotten exponentially more expensive and expectations have grown. see, most folks have everything they need and more than enough of their wants. or at least the folks i know- family and friends. there are plenty of things my husband and i want- but most of the stuff is expensive- furniture, electronics, etc..

and, as much as i love making lists for myself, i hate making gift lists. it carries a sense of obligation that robs the gift of any meaning. hate it. folks feel obligated to get gifts during the christmas season and i firmly believe that it’s wrong. oh, i know how the custom started- folks would get together during the winter solstice and play games and bring gifts and take the time to spend with family and friends- because it was the only time of the year that they had it. they celebrated during the coldest, darkest time of year- and made it a time to look forward to.

can’t say the same about the modern yuletide season. folks pretend to love it and secretly dread it because of the obligation thing. trust me- it’s ok to say no. which brings me around to priorities. nothing steams me more than keeping a relationship going on a one sided basis. what do i mean? well, one party over extending to the other party time and again- and there isn’t reciprocation. now, i am not saying that everything must be even steven all of the time- but let’s just say that i have taken the white out to my address book more than once. i tend to be a communicator- ask many of my blog buddies and they will tell you that i am pretty good at emailing and i used to post multiple times a day right here in the blogosphere. what i don’t do- continue communications with folks who only communicate with me after i have initiated. not worth my time.

which brings me to priorities- you need to make the effort. seriously. i don’t buy the busy, busy, busy bullshit- or the ‘i have kids so i don’t have time’ bullshit. really. if it’s a priority to you to maintain friendships or whatnot- you will occasionally make the time for a 10 minute phone call or a snail mail card or a simple poke on facebook. really. and if it’s an obligation or you find yourself making excuses- well, then it isn’t a priority and have ass enough to end it. really.

which brings me to gifting and the whole ‘consumer christmas season’- i don’t really want your gift if 1) you feel obligated 2) it’s a token 3) it’s crap in a box with a bow. i would rather have conversation- or simply some time. and it doesn’t have to be at christmas. in fact, i would rather it be in august when there is nothing going on. really. most folks feel stressed and harried and exhausted by the end of the ’season of joy and giving’ and i really believe it’s a shame. because it isn’t what it started out to be- and we all have the power to change that.

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wow. just wow.

this is probably as good a description of upstate new york as i have read. it is an absolutely beautiful place- naturally speaking- but as for humans- not so much. the small cities and towns that used to look like mayberry in the 1930′ through the 1960’s- well, let’s just say that nothing was really built here since. no, that’s not true- the strip malls and mcmansions on the hills were constructed- but mostly it looks old and tired. like folks gave up. i think that there was a saying a long time ago- ‘rode hard and put away wet’ well, that describes upstate new york.
you know- the place where hillary clinton allegedly lives? the place she conveniently conducted a listening tour of in 2000 and hasn’t been back to since because she gets her love from the clintonistas.

new york is a beautiful state but it is no different than any other state these days. everywhere you look- the orgy is coming to an end. we didn’t prioritize the important stuff- infrastructure and investing in our communities in meaningful ways- instead focusing on hedonistic, consumeristic pleasures. we were on a binge- and now, we are crashing down from our high and realizing that we have to get back into reality. cold turkey.

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Overcome By Greed

I began a career in the banking industry forty years ago.  At that time, especially for someone starting at the bottom of the ladder, new hires were required to attend night courses conducted by the American Institute of Banking.The very first course was titled “Principals of Bank Operations” and I had a text book by the same name for the course.  I am not sure if I still have that text book laying around the house anywhere, but there is one important principal that I was taught in that course, that has always stayed with me, the principal that as a bank employee I had a fiduciary responsibility towards our depositors.

A fiduciary responsibility meant that I was obligated to follow all bank procedures, all regulations, to exercise care and sound judgment in protecting the money that our customers had placed in our hands.

In those days before banking de-regulation, in many respects banking was simpler.  Banks were more localized, limited to operating in only the state that they were chartered in, there was no such thing as super regional, or truly national banks, as we know them today.  Bankers primarily received deposits in the form of checking accounts and savings accounts (bank liabilities) and used those monies to fund loans for business uses and housing in the form of construction loans and mortgages (bank assets).  Other funds were raised by the sale of bank stock, in many cases bank stock was owned by members of the community that a bank operated in, as a borrower you knew that someone in your local community trusted you with their money, and depended upon you to return it whole.  Bankers were known for their conservatism in the management of money, “safe and sound” were the values they wanted to project to their depositors and shareholders.  In that environment the depositors and shareholders would give bankers the seed money, that when invested wisely in terms of reasonable risk would return a reasonable and fair amount of income and the original principal to them.  The borrowers would achieve their objectives through use of the money which might be a home for their family or growth of their business and the lenders would achieve their objectives of increased income by renting out their assets and helping feed economic growth.

In the intervening years since the 1960’s de-regulation of the banking industry occurred.  (The term de-regulation applies more to markets as opposed to actual operating procedures and rules; banks in particular are still subject omnipresent government oversight, and in fact, since 9/11 subject to much more regulatory procedure .)  In the de-regulated world, banks have been allowed to branch in to other market activities that they were previously barred from, such as insurance sales, and investing, and other industries, such as insurance, and investment firms, were allowed to provide services formerly restricted to banks.  This has led to ever more “creativeness” in the conception of and packaging of investment funds.

In addition to de-regulation, the government lead by an ideologically conservative driven administration and abetted by a Congress that if not controlled by ultra conservatives outright, has succumbed to conservative pressures from business lobbyists and other special interest groups, and succeeded in dismantling every government initiative to protect consumers, protect public health, protect the environment, etc.

The word “conservative” that was formerly descriptive of careful, cautious, risk averse best practices by bankers in an earlier, simpler time, has become synonymous with free market economics, where anything goes, where government is disjoined from the regulation of business and industry, where financial buccaneering in pursuit of the accumulation of ever greater investment returns, and the ability to spend freely and ostentatiously on any nonessential material artifact is considered an attribute of success in our society.

Modern “conservative values” have brought upon our society the current home loan crisis by allowing unsound, and arguably, fraudulent mortgage lending practices to proliferate.  Modern “conservative values” have brought upon our country tremendous debt, by conducting warfare not on a pay as you go basis, not by raising taxes, but by mortgaging future generations to the Japanese and Chinese who hold the greatest amount of U.S. Treasury bills (IOU’s of the U.S. Government).  Modern “conservative values” have brought a health care crisis to our country, where millions cannot afford health care, but where insurance companies and drug companies continue to reap massive profits.  Modern “conservative values” have lined the pockets of war profiteers as our government and military services have outsourced logistical and combat operations, not the to lowest bidders, not to the bidders with the best ability to perform the job, but to the bidders with inside contacts, the bidders able to fund the biggest lobbyists, the bidders who eventually kill innocent civilians with their non-accountable paramilitary operators in Iraq and who eventually kill American soldiers with their shoddy infrastructure.  Modern “conservative values” pursue the drilling of oil off our coasts and in the pristine Alaskan wilderness all for short term profits, without regard for the diminishing natural resources, without regard for the destruction of the environment, instead of applying a significant amount of their treasure towards discovering how to harness renewable, non carbon burning, energy.  Instead of figuring out how to provide food for all who are hungry, commodity speculators have turned plant material in to more fuel to burn in internal combustion engines and generate more carbon emissions for our atmosphere.

The concept of fiduciary responsibility seems to have been forgotten in the deregulated banking and investment industries today in the pursuit of greater and greater profits.  Whether or not consumers are sucked deeper and deeper in to debt, encouraged to buy more “stuff”, to overextend themselves credit-wise, whether or not the building of more coal and oil burning factories, electrical power plants, automobiles, trucks and airplanes results in global warming,  whether or not people still needlessly die of malnutrition or disease, if the consumers keep consuming, and the shareholders keep thinking they are attaining more income, and the few at the top of the heap keep obtaining greater and greater portions of the available wealth, without making corresponding contributions to the greater society, then we will become overcome by greed, and eventually consumed by it.

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What would Jesus buy? The Shopocalypse has begun!

I was thinking about how to title this post about the mass consumerism that starts the day after turkey day. Then I cracked open my emails and found this from Alternet. I went to the site linked in the article before I actually read the Alternet writeup. I thought it might be a joke after watching the trailer. It was hysterically funny while being so disgustingly true. But as the first two paragraphs in the Alternet piece tell us, its a true calling for Reverend Billy and his flock:

Bill Talen, known as Reverend Billy, doesn’t mind making a fool of himself. He is happy to throw himself on the floor in a fit of religious ecstasy, perform cash register exorcisms or go caroling with the 35 members of the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, singing such favorites as “Fill the malls with wealthy people,” to the tune of “Deck the Halls.” He does all this and much, much more in the new documentary about him and his Church of Stop Shopping, What Would Jesus Buy?

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