Category
Consumerism
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Money & Economy, Consumerism
The Biofuel Follies
Why don’t more Americans get ticked off by the ethanol debacle? Our government is spending billions propping up a pointless industry that’s doing real damage to the world’s poor. After all, ethanol will do little to really decrease our reliance on oil in general. The monomaniacal desire of some to punish the MidEast is resulting […]
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Money & Economy, Consumerism
The Price of Growth
In my quest to understand and practice the discipline of simplicity, I face no greater challenge than the prevailing mindset of my American culture. Its god is progress; its prophets, television and the Internet; its hymns, commercial jingles; its temples, stores. Its proverbs include “growth is always good,” “more is better,” “enough is just a […]
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Money & Economy, Consumerism
Corn in the USA
Ethanol subsidies have contributed to some serious shortages in grains. Rice is just one example:
“As shocking as it sounds, The New York Sun reported Monday that the global rice shortage has struck home. American citizens have begun to experience food rationing in our rich, blessed country.
“Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting […]
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Quotes, Consumerism
Berry on Satisfaction
“And so we can say that the industrial economy’s most-marketed commodity is satisfaction, and that this commodity, which is repeatedly promised, bought, and paid for, is never delivered. On the other hand, people who have much satisfaction do not need many commodities.” - Wendell Berry in “The Whole Horse” in The Art of the Commonplace
(H/T: […] -
Current Affairs, Consumerism
What Ethanol Subsidies Really Are
“Welfare checks for government moonshine.”
(Jonah Goldberg of National Review)
