My hope is that as the result of this downturn, we become an economy that depends less on buying things and more on creating and inventing products, technologies and services that other countries want. We buy way more from other countries than they buy from us.
My hope is we learn to live better with fewer possessions.
An economy that depends on people buying things--often with money that we don't even have--is not sustainable and it's vapid in the moral or spiritual sense. We've also spent too much time worshipping money makers as if they were gods. That's where Jon Stewart struck a nerve.
It's good to hear the story about a person who starts with nothing and ends up a billionaire but there are other stories out there that are as worthy but don't get as much press coverage because it's not tied to the dollar bill.
Without a doubt, Obama's team is on the right track in wanting to create a sustainable economy for the long haul, not just the short term, which is what the impatients can't stand and the republicans are exploiting. People want their fix now.
But, hey, Bob Schieffer has some good news-- people are buying less so trash at the landfills is down.
