By Chris Verkaik

`Shopping as patriotic duty'

I write this from the safety of my room while a good section of the population is out enjoying the first official shopping day of the Christmas season. As I sit here and let everybody else get the best deals on DVD players and wool sweaters, I can't help but think that there appears to be more at stake this holiday season than ever before.

Every time I turn on the news somebody is talking in the gravest of tones about consumer confidence indexes or final quarter profit projections. One almost gets the feeling that the future of our country depends on how much Americans manage to spend between now and Christmas.

The worst offenders seem to be those in the auto industry, who keep trying to subliminally connect the possession of a new car with a deep love for one's country. General Motors suggests that we ``keep America rolling'' by purchasing one of their trucks. Ford claims a desire to ``help move America forward,'' but would rather we do it by buying one of their trucks instead. Sounds like a good deal to me: not only does everyone get a new vehicle, but we get to do our country an invaluable service at the same time.

I keep expecting to see Uncle Sam on a billboard imploring the passing cars, ``Dig deep and buy those things you've always wanted, brothers and sisters! The American economy needs every dollar you can spare!''

I'll leave it to someone else to ruminate on the opportunist insensitivity of using a national tragedy to sell automobiles. I'm more concerned about the people I meet who are buying into such hype. Let's not be naïve here. Ford is not trying to sell you a truck for the good of the country. This is nothing more than self-interest masquerading as altruism - that's equally true for the buyer and the seller.

I know precious little about economics, so there indeed may be some truth to all this ``buy for America'' propaganda. Even so, I can't help myself from feeling uncomfortable with where such reasoning gets us. Do we really want to turn consuming into a patriotic activity?

As Americans we have more than we need but just can't help ourselves from going back for more. At no time is this sad fact more apparent than the holiday shopping season. We're addicted to consuming, yet the last thing we need is another reason to max out our credit cards at Sears.

Think before you spend this holiday season. We're already killing for our country. Let's not shop for it as well.