Emphasis Preaching Journal

One of the most telling books on the nature of our wasteful American society is David Halberstam's study titled, The Reckoning, dealing with the crisis in America. The crisis is the fact that we have permitted our industrial supremacy to slip away from us. Back in the '50s, we created the disposable society. We were so prosperous we could afford to create products with built-in obsolescence. Our manufacturers did not improve products or their factories for manufacturing them. They could count on the American public to replace their disposable products with new ones.

However, some of the disposable products of American manufacturing were being replaced with quality and durable goods from overseas manufacturers at cheaper prices. The fault was not simply with the smokestack industries who were prompted by greed to give the disposable goods. Nor was it only the unions who were prompted by greed to push their demands for higher pay and greater benefits. The fault was just as much with the American consumers who greedily bought up the disposable products and then just as quickly turned their loyalties to overseas products. Now, American manufacturers, overseas manufacturers and consumers want durable goods of quality. We are no longer the disposable society. The day of reckoning is here.