ENTITLED TO SUFFRAGE, SAY-SO, AND CHOICES
Saturday, August 15, 2020
We don’t need distractions right now.
We need to focus on public health, healthy economies, healthy minds, and working through this current nightmare/agony.
But distraction is everywhere.
Binge-watching news has, in most countries, morphed into binge-watching politics in all its ugly manifestations. It’s not good TV, it’s not good drama, but it’s what is on. And on. And on …
We can’t ignore it, but we would wrong to give it too much weight.
The heft of every economy is the collective behavior of its citizens – yes, the masses, who vote with our feet and with our wallets. It’s our spending, our investment, our payroll deductions, and our giving/donations that make the private and public sector run. It isn’t run by opinion polls and policy-wonks, or politician-puppets with their strings being pulled by anonymous/invisible forces …
How we spend or save, how we work and pay payroll taxes, how we determine our lifestyle drives every up or down cycle of ever economy. If we all started wanting mini-houses, the market would respond. If we all wanted bicycles, then the market would respond – as it has recently. Not because bike sellers wanted to sell more bikes, but because people like you and I wanted to buy more bikes. My guess is, if the hills and trails are open this winter, people will buy more snowmobiles, skis, and snowshoes – and if the borders remain closed, staying home will have further economic impacts.
My point is that we drive markets, not the other way around.
Things are different now than they’ve ever been, and things ten years from now will be unrecognizable – because the market will respond (politicians too) to what we want. We don’t just vote with a ballot, we vote with our feet. Where we spend our time and money, how much attention we pay to things – across demographic lines, determines what the suppliers (Wall & Bay streets, main street, manufacturers, media, developers, importers, software, and hardware suppliers) …
This is no time to sit on the sidelines, waiting for others to make things happen. We should not be deluded that any political party is looking out for us first, or even second. We need to look out for ourselves, grow our ambitions and dreams into smart decisions, bold moves, and ambitious enterprises.
If not us, then who?
If not now, when?
Reader feedback:
To get cell service in the badlands you need to rise above them. I really tried to resist but I am weak. Some really good writing to today’s Musings, RH, Calgary, AB (from near Drumheller, AB) .. p.s. Benny’s sometime soon.
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