Where do we go from here?
So the economy is bottoming out. We’ve finally discovered as a nation (I hope) that an economic plan consisting of
- Buying cheap plastic junk from China
- Driving the most inefficient vehicles ever designed by man
- Taking out loans for things we know we can’t afford
- Fueling our entire transportation system with a substance whose price is controlled by a tiny group of people who don’t like us very much
- Letting our government spend money without telling us what it’s buying (Halliburton, anyone?)
is not exactly a plan for success. Excellent. Now we can start rebuilding from the ground up, right? I have a simple plan, and there are two sides to it:
Side A: Buy things that are valuable. Don’t mistake “lowest price” for “best value”, that’s the kind of thinking that sent our middle class jobs to India and China. Don’t think that “ability to re-sell later” is value, either, there are plenty of homeowners out there sitting on smoking piles of good intentions and bad debt. Buy things that will last, that will support a good lifestyle, and will leave as little negative impact on the world as possible. The downside? You won’t be able to afford as much. The truth? You’ve never been able to afford what you’ve been buying.
Of course I believe music is something of value, otherwise I wouldn’t be making it. Music is the emotional chronicle of our time. Long after we’re fertilizing our great-grandchildren’s corn fields, our era will be defined by what we listened to.
Then there’s Side B: Make things that are valuable. Again, don’t mistake “lowest cost” for “best value”. You’ll never compete with third-world manufacturers if you’re aiming for the bottom. Aiming for the top means making something that contributes to the world. With every cost compromise you only destroy your own reputation as a creator of valuable things. The size of the markup isn’t as important as what the thing actually does.
As a musician, I will not write or produce music that I wouldn’t want to listen to. There will be no “save a horse, ride a cowboy” coming form my lips. Ever. If I don’t think the song is going to touch someone, force them to think differently, or start a revolution (or all three), I won’t even hit the record button.
Where do we go from here? We go to Value. You could, I suppose, call it Quality. Pirsig wrote a whole book about defining Quality, but his conclusion is simple: Quality exists before we make or buy anything. If we do not allow that sense of Quality to be the GPS for our economic vehicle, we will only continue driving in circles until we run out of gas.
P.S.: If you liked what you read, please share it with others!
