Monday Question

What did you do this weekend?

It is a common Monday morning question.

Friday, on the way home from work, I listened to an interview of James Howard Kunstler, author of “The Long Emergency”. He talked up his new book about the changes that will be forced upon us as oil supply dwindle and demand outstrips supply. He thinks we are definitely in the end of the oil era and will start seeing oil shortage changes as soon as 10 to 15 years from now: more regional and local focus product wise, as the transportation cost for goods makes prices prohibitive for many of the goods we take for granted today; urban sprawl contracting again, as transportation costs for goods and customers increases; smaller houses that are more energy efficient.

One of the phrases he used in the interview was “recreational shopping”. It was, I thought, a nice phrase. It rings true.

Utility is an economic concept that talks about the satisfaction, or utility, gained from consumption a good or service. I remember one of my instructors talked about how, for many people, the true utility in buying a product comes not from the product bought, but from the act of buying. That is where the true utility of money exists for many today: Recreational Shopping!

What did you do this weekend? We did some recreational shopping.

It got us out of the house, into the malls and shopping centers along with all the rest of the suburban shoppers. And there sure were a lot of us!