Shoppers swarm the escalators at Macy's in New York City on November 25, 2011: "Black Friday." (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
Web Only// Views » January 27, 2012
The Economic Normalcy Bias
Even in a time of financial crisis, our culture consumes as if there were no tomorrow.
Despite persistent unemployment, flat wages and higher prices for necessities (food, health care, etc.), America nonetheless went on its usual post-Thanksgiving buying spree.
In 1977, two Boeing 747s collided on an airstrip in the Canary Islands. According to accident investigators, those who survived the initial blast in one plane had time to escape before a fire consumed the wreckage. But eyewitnesses reported that many remained in their seat looking perfectly content–as if nothing was wrong.
Not surprisingly, dozens of these dazed victims were burned to death, and the episode became a reminder of the so-called normalcy bias–a cognitive phenomenon whereby many who are faced with imminent disaster instantly convince themselves that everything is normal and that they don’t have to modify their behavior.
Unpleasant as this anecdote is to recount, it exemplifies the psychology at the root of one of America’s most destructive traits: our obsession with materialism and consumerism. To extrapolate the metaphor, if our damaged economy, record-low savings rate and sky-high personal debt levels are that smoldering plane about to explode, then America’s “shop till you drop” normalcy bias may be engineering yet another avoidable tragedy.
The most recent holiday binge exemplified the impending crisis. Despite persistent unemployment, flat wages and higher prices for necessities (food, health care, etc.), America nonetheless went on its usual post-Thanksgiving buying spree.
A glance at new data from the holiday season tells this story. After Black Friday’s now-annual melee of hyper-aggressive shoppers, the Washington Post reported that Christmas saw credit card purchases jump 7 percent over last year. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve bank reported that consumer borrowing surged to pre-recession levels; Forbes reported that online holiday spending hit a record; and the Los Angeles Times reported that “consumer spending “grew faster than people’s take-home incomes” as households “cut their savings rate (to) support their purchases of cars and other goods and services.”
In the face of such self-destructive behavior, it’s worth asking: Why is overconsumption still the preferred “normal” in America? The flippant answer is that it’s simply hard for shopaholics to break old habits. But while that’s certainly true, it’s not the whole story when enablers are everywhere.
Turn on the television, and you’ll inevitably face a bevy of ads telling you to buy something – a cellphone, a television, a car, anything!–even if you don’t actually need the product. Look around at the economy and you’ll see growing industries that are based not on fulfilling customers’ basic needs, but on satiating consumers’ materialist impulses. Tune into politics and you’ll hear policies touted for how they will prompt even more consumer spending.
Of course, that latter enabler–politics–is the most powerful of all, as our national leaders regularly tout consumption for its own sake.
Recall that in the face of the planet’s climate change and resource crises, then-Vice President Dick Cheney denigrated the notion of frugality, saying, “Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.” Likewise, Rudy “America’s Mayor” Giuliani told everyone not to sacrifice after 9/11 but instead to “go shopping.” And last month, Bloomberg News headlined a dispatch “Bernanke Prods Savers to Become Consumers,” highlighting how the “easy money” lending policies of the nation’s chief banker was reinvigorating the culture of gluttony.
Just five years ago, this same Fed chairman was rightly imploring Americans to “forgo consumption or leisure” in order to start reshaping our economy around sustainability and thrift. But after the financial crisis, he, like so many politicians, became just another passenger on that burning plane.
Paralyzed by the normalcy bias, Bernanke and other leaders keep calmly imploring us to go about our business … move along … and that’s what we keep doing, even though the fuselage may soon go up in flames.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
David Sirota, an In These Times senior editor and syndicated columnist, is a bestselling author whose book Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now—Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything was released in 2011. Sirota, whose previous books include The Uprising and Hostile Takeover, hosts the morning show on AM760 in Denver. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com or follow him on Twitter @davidsirota.
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Reader Comments
Excellent point. Excellent article.
One thing. I happen not to believe the numbers reported about the shopping. I heard that after “black” Friday that over 50% of the shoppers returned their purchases. You can Google that I think. Not sure since Google has gone capitalist.
I promise you. Many people did not shop. We haven’t shopped in a decade. We simply don’t do holidays anymore.
Posted by Yellowbird on Feb 1, 2012 at 2:51 PM
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Posted by jamie0070 on Feb 3, 2012 at 12:47 AM
An Old Leon Rosselson song - the guy who wrote “World Turned Upside Down” - comes to mind. It’s called “We Sell Everything”. It was written back in the 60s, I believe, too. You can find it at GrooveShark, but here are the all-too-prescient lyrics:
I woke up this morning when a ring at the bell split my dreams
The man at the door wore a smile so wide
I thought his face would fall apart at the seams
He jigged “Good morning it’s your lucky day
Because I’ve come to help you make the grade
I’m your friend I’m your neighbor I’m your good companion
I’m the leader of a wig crusade
I’ve got straight wigs, curly wigs, gay wigs and girly wigs
Live-a-little buy a devil-daring one
Blue wigs, red wigs, very-good-in-bed wigs
Everyone who’s anyone is wearing one…”
I said “No thank you I’ve nowhere to put them
And I’ve got all the hair that I need”
He said “Don’t worry son we’ve got a product on the market
That will make your hair fall out, guaranteed
We’ve got:
cough drops, cricket bats, iron lungs, knicknacks
wooden legs, wedding rings, we sell everything
slug killers, killer slugs, road drills, ear plugs
time bombs, tombstones, merchant banks and garden gnomes
toothpaste, defoliants, genital deodorants
strychnine, gasoline, benzene, polythene…
He said, “the products we are marketing will transform you
Into someone of quality and style
You’ll be the number-one attraction
And everyone will envy your mysterious superior smile
‘Cause we’re making you a very special offer of tomorrow
In delicate pastel shades
Have a jar of instant happiness, a bottleful of glamor,
An amazing value dream that never fades
We’ve got tubes of tranquility, boxes of virility
Packets of the simple life that used to be
Eternal youth at bargain price, a one-way trip to Paradise
Or why not buy a giant pack of Purity
Here’s a free gift sample of the art of gracious living
There’s nothing that we can’t provide
And what it all adds up to is super satisfaction
Though we hope you won’t be satisfied
Because we’ve got:
fruit machines, magazines, baked beans, submarines
handcuffs, face creams, pep pills and private dreams
synthetic fibres, tranquilizers, inorganic fertilizers
canned beer, barbed wire, dividends at five points higher
Mars bars, fast cars, Jesus Christ as Superstars
life insurance, cigarettes, package tours and Sabre jets…
Well I said I really didn’t think I had the urge to purchase
And in any case my cash was running low
His eyes beamed out a warning and his smile got kind of stormy
And he said “There’s just one thing you ought to know
It’s people like you who are letting down the country
When our democratic freedoms are at stake
‘Cause if you don’t buy the wheels will start to falter
And after that it’s on with the brake
Then confidence will be destroyed and millions will be unemployed
And anarchy will reign where there was once harmony
So tell me, sir, do you prefer to be a lousy saboteur
Or help to boost that national economy?
Because production only rises and investments only boom
When the demand stimulates the supply
Then everyone will prosper so I hope it’s very plain
That it’s your patriotic duty to buy…
cough drops, cricket bats, iron lungs, knicknacks
wooden legs, wedding rings, we sell everything
slug killers, killer slugs, road drills, ear plugs
time bombs, tombstones, merchant banks and garden gnomes
toothpaste, defoliants, genital deodorants
strychnine, gasoline, benzene, polythene…
fruit machines, magazines, baked beans, submarines
handcuffs, face creams, pep pills and private dreams
synthetic fibres, tranquilizers, inorganic fertilizers
canned beer, barbed wire, dividends at five points higher
Mars bars, fast cars, Jesus Christ as Superstars
life insurance, cigarettes, package tours and Sabre jets…
An the new supersonic fractional orbital bombardment system
That annihilates everything that moves
Within a range of 7.528 light years…
Posted by pdxjoe on Feb 3, 2012 at 3:21 PM
in my opinion this strategy should attract many tourists. I am sure that you will have many visitors in the near future if you will continue in the same manner. moorings
Posted by luci smoth on Feb 17, 2012 at 7:34 AM
Posting Security