Make 2009 the year you stop defining yourself as a consumer

One of my new year's resolutions is to stop referring to myself as a consumer. The idea came from reader Tom Krohn, who suggested it's not just the country's spending habits that need to change for the better but the language we use to describe who we are.

"We Americans are so used to being referred to as 'consumers' that we comfortably fall into that role and do so conspicuously," Krohn, a retired Navy submariner living in Arkansas, wrote me.

This recession has proved that things have to change, and still the message from many of our leaders continues to be that consumerism - consumers - will save the day. To be a consumer is equivalent to being a good American.

Consumerism has become a basic component of our citizenship, contends Lizabeth Cohen in "A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America."

"By the end of the Depression decade, invoking 'the consumer' would become an acceptable way of promoting the public good, of defending the economic rights and needs of ordinary citizens," writes Cohen, a Harvard professor.

We track closely the results of the Consumer Confidence Survey. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. That's bad because much of that spending was made possible by the overuse of credit. Our economy is in a mess today because too many people - individuals and executives - believed it was financially savvy to use other people's money. In many ways, the country has participated in a colossal Ponzi scheme.

Since the Great Depression, we've embraced and celebrated our consumerism. National holidays are celebrated by shopping. We have Veteran's Day sales. That's how we honor our servicemen and women - by shopping.

And we are passing this legacy of consumerism on to our children. More children go shopping every week than read, go to church, or play outdoors, according to consumerism researcher and Boston College professor Juliet B. Schor, author of "Born to Buy."

Schor writes: "Contemporary American tweens and teens have emerged as the most brand-oriented, consumer-involved, and materialistic generation in history." Our children are courted as consumers before they have full-time jobs. "The kind of consuming people have been encouraged to do is undermining . . . our economic situation," Schor said.

Rather than keeping things the same, why don't we again become producers?

"Households and the country need investment, not consumption," Schor says. "We need to invest in energy conservation, degraded ecosystems, a sustainable food system, education, community building, human connection, and skills for everyday living."

Aren't you weary of being a consumer with all the accompanying debt? If so, make 2009 the year you stop defining yourself as a consumer.

Michelle Singletary is a columnist for The Washington Post. She can be reached at singletarym@washpost.com.