We all have hands on a huge economic cudgel— we need to pay for mortgages, utilities, groceries, medications — the things we truly need to survive. But how much of our monthly spending goes to real needs? Streaming services, new clothing, meals at Cracker Barrel, Olive Garden, McDonald’s and hundreds of other corporate chains, sports tickets, movie tickets, golf memberships, more junk plastic toys for the kids, and dozens of other things we spend money on out of choice. Or boredom. Most of that money goes right into the pockets of execs and shareholders. If millions of us stopped that spending, even for a month, the loss of profits would be felt and might help to get bigger, wealthier voices sounding off to Washington. It takes a small bit of effort to search out the truly independent merchants in our communities and spend money with them if we need to spend. Those merchants and their employees will be genuinely grateful. Use the public library. Walk or bike in parks and on trails and enjoy the peace and beauty. There are many free options for entertainment and fitness. We did something similar last year, on a smaller scale, to protest DEI obliteration— let’s do it again —“bigly”— to show we don’t accept rule by the oligarchy but demand to live with our constitutional rights protecting us.
We try to buy locally and since our needs at our age are few: food, plants, books, we are usually able to do it. We visit the Saturday Market weekly and shop for groceries at the local natural food store. It is more expensive and we are fortunate in that we can afford to do it. That being said, no everyone can afford to do this and they are caught up in what Mary rightfully calls a feudal system. They are the peons doing the work and paying more than their fair share of taxes while the wealthy look for new ways to extract and then new luxuries to acquire with all that loot, much of it devoted to keeping the hoi polloi away. As a voracious reader of history, I am cynical because this is what I see in many societies throughout the centuries. Greeds march all over the land looking for places to take over, to extract, to ignore the local community, and to see only the short term money and power.
I agree, it’s not an easy option for many people. I am a retired widow, with small needs to match a small income. I have the ‘luxury’ of being mortgage-free, thanks to a small life insurance policy my late husband had purchased. I wish we were still making a house payment together. I’ve shopped the same ways you’ve mentioned for the last 25 years but that was much harder when I was feeding two or three instead of one person. I don’t mean to sound “holier than thou”. It’s especially hard when the adults in the home are working full time, or more. Living locally and smaller requires a lot of trade-offs and is more work. You have to be willing/able to cook on at least a basic level and skip the frozen meals and packaged snacks 99.9% of the time; you have to be willing to be dressed in less than the latest style unless you’re a seamstress or to wait for a library hold on a new book instead of hitting Amazon or Audible. Vacation is probably not going to be at a resort in Florida or Cancun. You have to be willing to have a life that looks different from your neighbors and friends. It’s not an option that is right for everyone, but I do think as a society we’ve been taught to think we ‘need’ a lot of things we don’t really need or even truly want. It seems to me that many of our choices simply enrich people who already have more money than they can ever spend, while creating a lot of landfill at the same time. We lose, the planet loses, future generations lose. And current choices at the federal level are adding additional financial burdens on those who can least afford them.
Kathryn, agreed. We are retired. I do most of the cooking to keep the salt amount down and use local produce and that which I grow in our garden. I did smile about the latest styles because I am a jeans and sweatshirt/teeshirt person now. Your last sentence should be all caps because so many people are being hurt by the death star regime taking away benefits, grants, etc. Many years ago when I was in education, it was the time of the goths. They thought they were rebelling, but someone was making money from the clothes, jewelry, etc. It is hard to get off the grid (more frail than most people think) and get away from what Mary describes in this essay.
Same —tees and yoga pants or sweats worn until they are falling apart! I haven’t owned a dress in 35 years! I’m grateful to know how to cook and garden.
Extraction is at the heart of the Epstein class ideology: extract wealth from nature, assets others have created, worker incomes, human needs for housing and healthcare, the people’s government…the levels of brazen and subtle exploitation are intended to overwhelm to the point of numbness. The majority of us cannot fall prey to indifference or fear. Each of us has agency to push back lawfully and peacefully.
A bow to you for this. Thanks for breaking it all down for us. You captured the sense and urgency in this moment of upheaval and hopefully, renewal. If the Candy-ass dems would do their own jobs rather than buy in to the system of begging for donations to do their jobs maybe I'd trust their intentions. They learned that donation thing fast enough. Surely one or two of them can call in favors as the republicans do to get us some actual action on fighting this takeover of our rights and our government. What are they doing? The congressional hearings gives me hope and I know that they are collecting evidence, but who is bringing that all to a trial? That is who I want to send donations to. Our best bet just died recently. Jack Smith said with confidence that he could get a conviction of trump. He died before his time...I send prayers.
We all have hands on a huge economic cudgel— we need to pay for mortgages, utilities, groceries, medications — the things we truly need to survive. But how much of our monthly spending goes to real needs? Streaming services, new clothing, meals at Cracker Barrel, Olive Garden, McDonald’s and hundreds of other corporate chains, sports tickets, movie tickets, golf memberships, more junk plastic toys for the kids, and dozens of other things we spend money on out of choice. Or boredom. Most of that money goes right into the pockets of execs and shareholders. If millions of us stopped that spending, even for a month, the loss of profits would be felt and might help to get bigger, wealthier voices sounding off to Washington. It takes a small bit of effort to search out the truly independent merchants in our communities and spend money with them if we need to spend. Those merchants and their employees will be genuinely grateful. Use the public library. Walk or bike in parks and on trails and enjoy the peace and beauty. There are many free options for entertainment and fitness. We did something similar last year, on a smaller scale, to protest DEI obliteration— let’s do it again —“bigly”— to show we don’t accept rule by the oligarchy but demand to live with our constitutional rights protecting us.
We try to buy locally and since our needs at our age are few: food, plants, books, we are usually able to do it. We visit the Saturday Market weekly and shop for groceries at the local natural food store. It is more expensive and we are fortunate in that we can afford to do it. That being said, no everyone can afford to do this and they are caught up in what Mary rightfully calls a feudal system. They are the peons doing the work and paying more than their fair share of taxes while the wealthy look for new ways to extract and then new luxuries to acquire with all that loot, much of it devoted to keeping the hoi polloi away. As a voracious reader of history, I am cynical because this is what I see in many societies throughout the centuries. Greeds march all over the land looking for places to take over, to extract, to ignore the local community, and to see only the short term money and power.
I agree, it’s not an easy option for many people. I am a retired widow, with small needs to match a small income. I have the ‘luxury’ of being mortgage-free, thanks to a small life insurance policy my late husband had purchased. I wish we were still making a house payment together. I’ve shopped the same ways you’ve mentioned for the last 25 years but that was much harder when I was feeding two or three instead of one person. I don’t mean to sound “holier than thou”. It’s especially hard when the adults in the home are working full time, or more. Living locally and smaller requires a lot of trade-offs and is more work. You have to be willing/able to cook on at least a basic level and skip the frozen meals and packaged snacks 99.9% of the time; you have to be willing to be dressed in less than the latest style unless you’re a seamstress or to wait for a library hold on a new book instead of hitting Amazon or Audible. Vacation is probably not going to be at a resort in Florida or Cancun. You have to be willing to have a life that looks different from your neighbors and friends. It’s not an option that is right for everyone, but I do think as a society we’ve been taught to think we ‘need’ a lot of things we don’t really need or even truly want. It seems to me that many of our choices simply enrich people who already have more money than they can ever spend, while creating a lot of landfill at the same time. We lose, the planet loses, future generations lose. And current choices at the federal level are adding additional financial burdens on those who can least afford them.
Kathryn, agreed. We are retired. I do most of the cooking to keep the salt amount down and use local produce and that which I grow in our garden. I did smile about the latest styles because I am a jeans and sweatshirt/teeshirt person now. Your last sentence should be all caps because so many people are being hurt by the death star regime taking away benefits, grants, etc. Many years ago when I was in education, it was the time of the goths. They thought they were rebelling, but someone was making money from the clothes, jewelry, etc. It is hard to get off the grid (more frail than most people think) and get away from what Mary describes in this essay.
Same —tees and yoga pants or sweats worn until they are falling apart! I haven’t owned a dress in 35 years! I’m grateful to know how to cook and garden.
I've gotta get dressed to go march. Thanks for reminding me of the reasons I'm putting on my most comfortable shoes.
Extraction is at the heart of the Epstein class ideology: extract wealth from nature, assets others have created, worker incomes, human needs for housing and healthcare, the people’s government…the levels of brazen and subtle exploitation are intended to overwhelm to the point of numbness. The majority of us cannot fall prey to indifference or fear. Each of us has agency to push back lawfully and peacefully.
Institutional inertia almost perfectly:
The “system” (government + institutions) is already in motion
Even though participants recognize problems, there’s no sufficient force applied to change direction
So the system continues in its existing trajectory:
→ weak enforcement
→ lack of accountability
= now
No work, no school, no shopping and for me no driving.
A bow to you for this. Thanks for breaking it all down for us. You captured the sense and urgency in this moment of upheaval and hopefully, renewal. If the Candy-ass dems would do their own jobs rather than buy in to the system of begging for donations to do their jobs maybe I'd trust their intentions. They learned that donation thing fast enough. Surely one or two of them can call in favors as the republicans do to get us some actual action on fighting this takeover of our rights and our government. What are they doing? The congressional hearings gives me hope and I know that they are collecting evidence, but who is bringing that all to a trial? That is who I want to send donations to. Our best bet just died recently. Jack Smith said with confidence that he could get a conviction of trump. He died before his time...I send prayers.
As a child May Day was making “vases”out of paper, filling it with wildflowers, and leaving them on our neighbors doorsteps.