I heard this thing on the news the other day, something to the effect that various corporate entities were "cutting back" on their Super Bowl parties and extravaganzas, as it was felt that in these "lean economic times" it would be in bad taste to be seen spending lots of money on a party.
This is completely wrongheaded thinking, and I will tell you why.
Sure, perhaps it was bad public relations for those automobile executives to fly to Washington on three separate jets. But if you think about it for a moment, on that day, three separate jet pilots . . . were employed. When the auto executives cheaped down and drove in one car to Washington instead of flying in separate jets, some big money that would have been very economically stimulating to the lives of those jet pilots (as well as the flight attendants and ground crew and mechanics and all the other support personnel that must go along with something like that) was not spent. Great.
Similarly, when a company chooses not to throw a big party, that means a whole lot of food doesn’t get bought and thrown out, which puts farmers out of work. It means a whole lot of people who cook for a living aren’t working. It means all kinds of waiters and waitresses are not working. It means that people who rent out tents and tables and chairs, and the guys who drive the trucks to deliver those tables and chairs and all the other decorations and the band and the roadies and the electricians and all the other people and stuff that an event needs, they’re sitting home unemployed too. And, full disclosure here, the fewer meetings and events there are, the fewer speakers there are (like me) that get hired.
I am very worried that it is starting to become politically incorrect to spend money, and if that idea takes hold, we really will be in an economic crisis. Believe me, I know from personal experience– that you cannot skimp and scrimp your way to prosperity. You have to think big. Sure, you should try to save big, but you also need to charge big, work big, deliver service big, and spend big.
In a world where we are so highly efficient and productive, we must be highly consumptive as well. And right now we need people who have cash on hand to be as lavish as possible.
The great depression ended when 12 million American men were inducted into the military and were essentially turned into government employees, and every other able-bodied adult was put to work in industries making machines that were shipped overseas and blown to bits. We are at war again, but we must identify the enemy: it’s our own poor management of our monstrous productivity.
Just remember, the money that was in the stock market didn’t just disappear. They didn’t haul out in the street and set it on fire. It’s still out there, somewhere. And the sooner we start spending it lavishly on stuff we don’t really need, the sooner the biggest news item will go back to being celebrity cellulite.
© Justin Locke
