The Mighty Quinn

Everybody's in despair, every girl and boy

But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here

Everybody's gonna jump for joy

-- "The Mighty Quinn," by Bob Dylan

James Quinn, a champion of Average Joes who live responsibly and play by the rules, is one of the most formidable writers on the Internet today. His most recent tour de force, "Jesus in Suburbia" combines mesmorizing data, trenchant analysis and a rhetorical style that leaves whiplash scars on its victims. If he hasn't been discovered by the big publishing players yet, it's only a matter of time before he will be. Read his latest essay on his website, The Burning Platform, and tell your friends that you discovered him before he became a household name.

That's not to say that I agree with everything Quinn says -- I find his indictment of an entire generation of Baby Boomers to be a bit indiscriminate -- but his critique of the sociology and political economy of early 21st century America is otherwise dead on.

By Quinn's reckoning, we're all guilty of the mess we're in, although some are more deserving of tar and feathering than others. In "Jesus in Suburbia," he argues that the suburban lifestyle that Americans have created since World War II is financially unsustainable: built upon a quicksand foundation of debt and the Baby Boomer generation's pursuit of material gratification. Much of the illusory prosperity of the past decade was financed not through increased productivity or higher rates of saving but the plundering of equity from the housing market. The chart below, taken from "Jesus of Suburbia," shows how lackluster our economic growth over the past decade would have been without the borrowing.

Here's Quinn's indictment of American materialism:

Our society has chosen to super size our houses, our vehicles, our TVs, our kitchens, our burgers, our sodas, and our egos. ... Even though 1 in 8 homes exceed 3,500 square feet, there still isn’t room for all our stuff.

Americans have accumulated so much stuff that their McMansions can’t contain it all. At year-end 1984 there were 6,601 self storage facilities with 290 million square feet of rentable self storage in the U.S. At year end 2008, there were 51,250 “primary” self storage facilities representing 2.35 billion square feet -- an increase of more than 2.0 billion square feet. There is 7.4 square feet of self storage space for every man, woman and child in the nation; thus, it is physically possible that every American could stand – all at the same time – under the total canopy of self storage roofing.

(To show that great minds thing alike, I made very similar points in a column on my old Bacon's Rebellion web site, including the references to George Carlin's "stuff," excessively large homes to store it in, and the rise of the self storage industry. See "The Excesses of Affluence." My apologies for the ill-maintained condition of the web site, which is now the responsibility of others to maintain.)

Let me close with one more quotation:

The entire suburban existence of the last twenty years has been a fraud, built on a foundation of debt, with bankers lying to investors and homeowners deceiving themselves. ...

We have tripled the size of our houses, and reduced the sense of community in our nation. Many have perfectly manicured lawns, polished appliances, 12 spotless rooms and dysfunctional, aloof, joyless lives. A McMansion, stainless steel appliances, 6 flat screens, and granite countertops do not guarantee happiness. When all of these items are bought on credit, you have a tragedy. America has degenerated into a materialistic, corrupt, me first, soul-less society. Nobody is right. Nobody is wrong. Everyone deserves to win, even if they made horrible decisions. Unless this changes soon, this country is doomed. By 2020 the United States will essentially be an old aged pension fund with an army.

Heed that last sentence: If we learn nothing from our most recent mistakes -- and who, upon reading Quinn can think that we have learned anything? -- we are doomed to repeat our mistakes on an even larger scale in the future. The 2008-2009 bursting of the housing bubble and the melt-down on Wall Street was mere prelude to the Boomergeddon to come.