Letter to the Editor: Just buy it!

The grocery bill is too high, cars are too expensive, college is exorbitant, going to a movie costs a fortune. We think about these things pretty much continuously. What to buy and when is the theme of life — can we afford it, can we save enough to buy one? We need information; we need to do some research; what does Consumer Reports say about it? We want a lot of stuff, some of which we will acquire and some of which we won’t.

Let’s do a little searching, for the cost of what we want is important to us. We all want stuff, the lower the price, the better off we are and the more stuff we can buy, so we need to be informed. Maybe we are missing a deal that is available online somewhere. We certainly don’t want to miss anything.

So I say, let’s take a small sampling of our knowledge of available products. The questionnaire will look something like this: What newspapers do you subscribe to and read? What periodicals do you take and read? What books have you read lately? What news organizations do you tune into while in the car or changing the oil of your lawn mower?

The answer I get is usually none (maybe one). The purpose of this exercise is to illustrate our level of awareness. This idea of such a questionnaire was occasioned by a piece I read about citizenship (a possibly outmoded concept no longer in circulation). The list of requirements of a citizen began with the requirement of being informed.

Unfortunately, we don’t consider ourselves citizens, we consider ourselves consumers. The idea of being informed, in the sense of citizenship, does not include the price of a hamburger and fries at the local fast food establishment or the cost of a box of imported raspberries at the supermarket. What it does include is an understanding of the society in which we live and who is in charge.

A second criteria is being involved. Involvement also requires time; time of which we have little to spare. The week is work and the weekend is for football and shopping. One hasn’t the time to either read a newspaper or attend a meeting about some civic improvement or new policy or legislation being proposed. “Don’t bother me with that stuff, it doesn’t concern me.”

Unfortunately there are people in power who have plans for you and me and we really should know who these people are and what they want to do — and we don’t. I suggest that we spend a little less time thinking about what to buy next and think a little about the people we put in power and what they have planned for us. Our future will depend, not on the price of chicken breasts, but on who is in charge and what they do once they get there.

Richard E. H. Phelps II

Mingo