Today Meta has announced a pair of glasses that let you read your social media, photos and email right on your glasses. You don’t have to glance at your phone! The cost is $799. Is this what the world needs now? this represents a proliferation of non-needed consumer items. Instead of investing money in the things that really matter like infrastructure repair, renewable energy, more diplomatic outreach, things that the Trump administration is against or is taking credit for (Biden’s infrastructure programs now have Trump’s name on them at the site), Americans are investing in more consumer items and in particular more tech gadgets.
Consumer spending makes up 70% of the American economy. In other advanced nations the ratio is far less and the amount of spending on other items such as infrastructure is far more. Now someone has made a business out of selling “untucked shirts.” Really? American consumers don’t how how to untuck their shirts already? This is an item every consumer needs to spend money on? There are so many unneeded products out there, products that don’t contribute to the health, welfare or well being of American citizens. Nevertheless, they have found a niche in the American economy, an economy for the consumer who has everything.
At the same time millions of people elsewhere in the world have relatively nothing. The obvious example today is Gaza where the infrastructure is being routinely destroyed on a daily basis and people quite literally don’t have a pot to piss in. In addition to war displacing millions of people, Sudan has also been heavily impacted by severe weather events linked to climate change, including floods and droughts. These events have adversely affected hundreds of thousands of individuals throughout the country, leading to crop and livestock destruction and exacerbating food insecurity for families. By the end of April 2025, more than 122 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations.
While Americans spend tons of money on frivolous gadgets and the stock prices of those who make them soar, millions of human beings might well be living on another planet, a planet where the citizens are experiencing a living hell of homelessness and hunger. The rich nations’ priorities are out of whack, especially the richest nation in the world (for some).
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