The Negro Consumer In America Is Fearful

Today I heard an eye opening and illuminating debate on a local Black radio station today. It was a date between the White guy who routinely calls into the show to give his "Ask De White Man" perspective and flavor to the show and the troops of standard Black callers who you simply can't convice that this economy is growing and is favorable to SOME depending on their position to take advantage of the market.

As I sat back and listened to their comments - THEY BOTH WERE CORRECT.

In using the standard measure for economic growth - the Gross Domestic Product - the US economy is in fact growing. This is the case even against the economies in Europe, a place where many a Black Progressive points to as a becon of reference for the USA to follow because of their expansive social safety net.

The callers stacked up giving their opposing view were correct as well. The economy FROM THEIR PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE is changing and is making it tougher for many middle class families to make it. They referenced increased gas prices, and price increases in general in the context of stagnant wage increase. From their perception their real purchasing power has decreased.

I happen to consume a higher than average amount of economic information. This is my interest. I found that both sides arguing their points were making points in the conversation but did not expess their concerns in the proper context nor did they have proper economic discipline in using terms to express that which was impacting them.

One caller mentioned that prices were going up while his salary was stagnating because "a few rich people hold all of the purse strings in the economy". While it may be true that consolidation has taken place in this country, this simplistic and conspiratorial explanation does not provide a proper model for what is going on - even though it was fully accepted by the many callers listening in to the show. The host of the show for sure gave her "I know that's right" to this response.

In truth these callers on this radio station who for so many years railed against American global imperialism, interventionalism, militarism and domination in general are having "their chickens come home to roost" and they have some critical choices to make. The rest of the world is coming to life economically. As these countries grow they are demanding OIL. Since the world's oil production is relatively fixed and the outlook for oil supplies has some fixed limit you can be sure that higher energy prices are here to stay when the source is petroleum based in nature.

The challenge to the backseat critic of America is to acknowledge the benefit that they have received in America while riding in cabin class as the captains of the ship did what they did to ensure that the ship was stocked and decide if they are willing to continue their ride or to leave their ship of consumer capitalism and experience a radically different life style and standard of living.

If you note the calls from African nations during the G-8 they are calling for 'trade' not 'aid'. They want to have access to the US and EU markets just as NAFTA and CAFTA have opened us up without the standard protections. The challenge to these masses is if they are willing to be "down with Africa" enough to yield their jobs to a REAL Africa who is actually IN AFRICA?

The American standard of living which once was a mountain in a field of ant hills is subject to adjustment to the world's standard level. We are losing jobs because the gap between production costs in America and the production costs in other countries adding transportation costs to that is still less than production in America.

The major challenge is to come to the realization of the fact that we are world citizens and not just citizens of America - a creation of men who valued the nation-state and used this construct to issolate itself economically from the rest of the world for the nation's best interests.