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My knowledge of politics and economics is very limited. Truth be told both sciences bore me and politics in particular makes me nauseous, especially in Romania. Before having Alex, my daughter, I would always read or watch the news, because I wanted to be informed and because I found it entertaining. Now, most of the news stories are such downers: world economy is collapsing, our planet is dying, PD-L is best chums with PSD (how a liberal party and a socialist one can ever form a partnership should be beyond our comprehension). So today, I’m mostly ignorant to the big events that shape the life of our country and world. Certain news does reach me once in a while, and one piece I found truly disturbing.

In US, the big retailers have special holiday’s discounts. Shoppers, in the form of an angry mob, storm these shops, looking for a bargain and killing anything that stands in their path. Literally. A shop employee was killed trying to hold down a crowd of shoppers: they pushed past him, threw him to the ground, and trampled over him until he was dead. When the shoppers were told they had to leave because a man was killed, they were furious.

I guess most of us only find “happiness” when we buy. That’s how advertising sells things we don’t need or can’t afford. We are also encouraged to keep buying by the system. What will happen to our economy if we didn’t change our wardrobe every new season, our mobiles every six months, our laptops every year, our cars every two years? All these industries will collapse; thousands of people will be left without jobs. How did we get to consume so much? I really don’t know, but I’m sure that there are many theories explaining this situation.

However, with the new world crisis, things are starting to change. In the EU, people buy half as many cars then the year before, the IT sector in Romania is shaking, Yahoo just fired 10% of its employees, in Romania Renault shuts down the production line a few days every week, advertising budget are drastically decreased, Gigi is borrowing money, banks are selling deposits instead of credits, people can’t pay their debts to the banks, the real estate market is crashing down after a ridiculous peak just a few months ago. How will this end? Again, I really don’t know, but I’m sure there are theories.

Leaving politics and economics aside, this is how I would like things to end. I would like us to realize that having the latest of everything does not make us better persons. I would like global businesses to be less global and more community oriented. I would like to see less advertising and more corporate responsibility. I would like the world to function at a slower but more gratifying pace.