For a while there was a meme in contemporary theory about refusal. Bartleby appears frequently, even though he doesn't refuse (he notes that he would prefer not to). In some versions, refusal is akin to a consumer strike, but broader--it's not clear exactly what is refused. It could be work, participation, consumption, to give a damn. At any rate, the basic idea is withdrawal, dropping out, letting the system fall under its own weight.
Yesterday the NYT ran a cover story on Japan--disheartened, subdued, stagnant, deflated, shrinking Japan (the innuedoes of a loss of sexual vitality and potency were over the top). Two decades ago, Japan had a booming economy, we are told. Now the entire society is characterized by resignation, weariness, and fear of the future. It was a cautionary tale, a story of the risks of refusals to work over time and go into debt.
...economists are now warning of "Japanification"--of falling into the same deflationary trap of collapsed demand that occurs when consumers refuse to consume, corporations hold back on investments and banks sit on cash.
Young Japanese people no longer fly to Manhattan to shop. They save their money.
They refuse to buy big ticket items like cars or television.
and they lack
their elders' willingless to toil for endless hours at the office...
The revolution? The dismantling or undermining? It reminds me of descriptions of the last decades of the USSR (not the exciting Gorbachev years but the dreary years of Brezhnev). Of course, the rhetoric is embedded in US capitalism where anything but BUY BUY BUY is a threat. To take this seriously means to note the real threat in not buying, not working endless hours at the office. To take another path.
They aren't buying it.
And perhaps increasingly we aren't either. Maybe "can't buy" is becoming "won't buy." Or maybe can't buy now means can't buy the lie that capitalism lifts all boats.
What goes along with not buying it? Making what we need.
I don't know about the Japanese but I can speak for my own experience and that of my friends and aquaintences. We are tapped out - I have no more equity in my house, I have no more room on my credit cards and my credit scores are crap. I would be more than willing to spend if I had the money or the credit - to keep shopping, to keep paying my bills, to afford anything beyond the mimum to get buy. And I am one of the lucky ones - I have a job and so does my spouse. But we are like so many shmucks who figured we could pay our bills later - and of course we have all those unpaid medical expenses that our wonderful insurance refuses to cover. I apologize for sounding so whinney but this post (or the article you reference) implies that not spending is somehow a choice. Certainly for businesses hoarding cash it is - but I question even that assumption. Because consummers have limitied or no access to further credit, there is no source for demand. And with a Republican victory all but assured, government spending is about to drop further - it is like we are living in 1930 or 1931, waiting for the final blow.
Posted by: Alain | October 18, 2010 at 08:31 PM
Hello Jodi,
I grew up in Japan and currently live in Tokyo. Having an experience of living in Belgium for several years, I can somehow compare Europe and Japan. It might be true people here are less consuming, though here I don't know anyone who doesn't have a TV set, except for myself. I think young people in Japan are simply becoming normal. I'm optimistic about those young people, because (I think) they are learning how to share things and how to prioritize what they care. They are not doing so as a political choice, of course. But, this cultural change is rather good, if it's really changing. The problem is that the social security is less generous in Japan than in Europe. And also, many landlords in Tokyo are not so happy with sharing, or apartments are simply not built for sharing. The article appearing in the NYT made me laugh.
Posted by: yasuo akai | October 20, 2010 at 04:59 AM