Wouldn't it be nice to escape consumerism?

I had very high hopes for Barack ObamaBarack Obama.

I figured getting the neo-cons out of Washington and seeing what a Democratic president along with solid majorities in both houses of Congress could do might go a long way toward reversing what has been happening in our country the last 30 years or so.

Forget what you've heard about Reagan-era prosperity and Clinton-era boom times; the fact is that for the middle class, household income has been flat at best since 1972. The rich get richer, the poor get children and everyone else thinks there must be something wrong with them since life isn't getting any easier.

Consider this:

Which of the following three scenarios would be worst for the American economy?

1. A doubling of the price of a barrel of crude oil.

2. A 20 percent decline in the value of the dollar.

3. A 20 percent increase in savings by Americans.

If you picked Door Number Three, you're quite intelligent. The house of cards that is that American economy is heavily dependent on a high level of consumer spending. That's why during the biggest booms in recent years, the level of savings dropped to almost zero for the first time since the Great Depression.

It's why for all the ridicule he took for it, there was method to George W. BushGeorge W. Bush's madness when he said the biggest way Americans to help their country after 911 was to return to the malls or take a trip to Disney World.

It's why just last month, Obama told the country that now was a great time to refinance a mortgage or to buy a new car. The biggest obstacle to jump-starting the economy the last few months has been that consumers aren't spending at previous levels. Americans who have lost their jobs or are worried about their jobs have been retrenching. They've been saving.

It's why our national motto is no longer "In God we trust."

It's "Welcome to Wal-Mart."

The problem is that it's such a soulless way to live. When we judge the success or failure of our lives by how much we own, by the fact that we have the best car, the biggest television, the newest house, we're all but admitting that we don't have much at the spiritual center of our lives.

I'm as guilty as anyone. I've got too many "toys" and too few accomplishments. When my wife and I complete the sale of our house this summer, it will be the first time in more than 20 years that we will have no debts at all.

No mortgage.

No car loans.

No credit-card debt.

We'll be fairly well set for retirement and one of my main goals will be to see that we never again incur any debts that can't be paid in full at the end of the month.

This is the kind of thing I wish Obama were telling Americans. Get your lives together and stop paying homage to the great god of consumerism. Buy what you need and then buy what you want, as long as you can afford it.

But stop buying things you think you're expected to want, and for your own sake, cut up the plastic. It's hard to believe, but it really has only been the last 40 years or so we have been in thrall to credit cards.

My own parents didn't buy a new television until they could afford one.

Imagine that.

It might be difficult in the short run, but we really could remake our society around something other than the shopping mall.

Maybe we could stand for something again.

The land of the free and the home of the brave.

Not the land of debtors and the home of fast easy credit.