Will the Economy Collapse?

My Mom ( one of my most dedicated blog readers..thank you Mom) asks some good questions after reading our New Year's resolution.

1, What would happen if we all didn't buy anything new...wouldn't our economy collapse?
2. What will the impact of our resolution be on our boys? ( will they be embarrassed to go to school?)

What would happen if no one bought new?

Here is what I hope would happen...companies would ask why and more importantly ...what will you buy?

My answer: I will buy products and services that
-enrich my life and my community and that
-are produced sustainably ( don't pollute the environment and are 100% recyclable)
from companies that pay a fair wage and provide benefits ( like health insurance)

Would our economy collapse? I don't think our economy is doing super well under the current conditions and I don't believe we have created an economy that is sustainable in the long term.

2. What about our boys and the impact on them? We talked long and hard about this. Our boys do sometimes feel that our family is a little "out there" ( as do many kids ) When we talked about trying this..their main concern was being able to buy books ( hard for parents to discourage that) but most of their book purchases are from Half Price books...which sells used books.

What about clothes? Will the boys be embarrassed at school?
We did talk about this..and that is why we put in an exception for things like shoes and even jeans. So far we have been able to find most other clothes pretty easily at second hand stores. We do live in a city so we have quite a few second hand options.

The main goal of this challenge is to make us more aware of how we spend our money and to be intentional about our purchases ( not to make us miserable :))

Quite honestly..we are not big shoppers...so it will be interesting to see what the impact of this is on our lives...it is certainly leading to some good discussions already.

Thanks Mom!