Reply #32: I think they need to know

[seventythree]

how you can live with a whole lot less -- like that commercial where the guy lets the water run as he brushes his teeth, and the other guy takes 15 napkins out of the holder. Yes, we shouldn't have a consumption tax on food, but how many people plant gardens any more or even grow tomatoes in a pot? How many still can? Hang their wash? Buy children's clothes at garage sales when they outgrow them in 3 months anyway? The Depression stories teach us what IS basic. Kids walked to school, their parents didn't drive them, and they weren't little blimps from being over fed with junk. If tv's existed back then, there sure wouldn't have been one in every room - most only had one radio. If there were no consumption tax on the basics -- wholesome food, kids shoes, medicine, soap, utilities,school supplies,X amount for one automobile, public transportation -- wouldn't most the middle class save money by reducing the needless things in their life? My biggest problem with the thought is -- in a consumer driven society when only the rich spend foolishly, will their spending be enough to sustain it?