God rest you merry, and sustainable too

Christmas -- a time to think about what we really need. It's a question we tend not to ask as we rush into stores packed with stuff at great prices.

Budget shortfalls, tax policy, goods (bads) made in China, corporate and individual greed -- all are swirling in my head where visions of sugar plums should be. And all contribute to the dissonance and promise of this season.

One in four kids in America is on food stamps, and 90,000 more Minnesotans went on food stamps over the last two years.

Minneapolis will have 25 fewer cops next year because of budget cuts. This is personal. We've had the Minneapolis police dealing with problems on our street several times this year -- and I want their protection and presence.

A basic function of government is being cut. My liberal ire rises as I hear only "no-new-taxes-government-is-the-problem-cut-cut-cut" from too many glib politicians. But it's as easy for me to blast "no new taxes" folks as it is for them to chant the mantra. Neither my blasting nor their chanting gets us anywhere.

The problem is all of us. What we think we want.

I've bought three new floor lamps to replace one that I had used as a reading light more than 10 years. Each cost between $100 and $150 or so. Each was made in China. One broke while I was assembling it. One was missing parts. One lit my book brilliantly -- for two minutes. Then died. They are junk. Made in China junk. Junk made by just-above-slave-labor workers. Junk made by workers hired by American companies trying to cut costs.

Because we want cheap goods. (Oxymoron, right? Cheap and good.)

Tom Friedman says we have gutted our economy and sent our money, our jobs and our futures to China. So we can buy cheap disposable junk we don't need and that the planet can't sustain. The lamp I'm trying to replace was made in Germany. It cost a lot. Lasted more than a decade. My China lights lasted an average of 40 seconds. Germany is a fair trading partner that treats its citizens and workers well.

Our national and state economies are wounded partly because so many jobs have gone offshore, most to find much cheaper labor. So that corporate speculators can pile up huge stacks of money. So that we consumers can have everything we want -- or so it seems, until we unwrap the package. Chain this together with the cowardly politics of "government is the problem, the market is the answer," and we are sinking, those of us in the bottom 90 percent of the American economy.

Speculation collapses, jobs disappear and governments are pinched to the point that the common good erodes. We can't afford schools, libraries, parks or police, but we think we can afford more stuff, bought on credit, made in China.

What if we had less, and more? Less fragile consumer junk, less potential speculative return -- and more solid moments of life with friends, faith, family, nature, books, cats and dogs and neighbors.

Christmas season. What if we gave ourselves and the world the gift of buying only a few well-made things we need and can truly enjoy? A sustainable Christmas. If I remember my reading, the author of Christmas would approve.

Bruce Benidt is a former journalist who now works as a communications consultant and teaches journalism at the University of St. Thomas. A version of this piece appears on The Same Rowdy Crowd, a blog he helps produce.

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