One of the best columns that I recently read was penned by
Jay Jefferson Cooke. His screed appeared
on the front page of the Courier News.
It discusses the decades-long love affair of Americans with instant
gratification, and of how it plunged us into the deep waters of unsustainable
debt. Cooke discusses ways to avoid
that.
If
you read his column, you will get a sense for the vigor and passion – not
to mention the accuracy – with which he gets his points across about
overspending and its consequences.
I can relate to his essay very well: When I grew up in post-WWII Lowell,
Massachusetts, textile and shoe manufacturing industries were its economic
backbone – at least 50 million square feet of productive capacity.
The war effort kept everything booming, but post-war peace brought
a sharp decline in demand, and mills shifted south in chase of cheaper labor
and proximity to its raw material, cotton.
Later, everything would move to Asia.
