When obie talks about a consumer driven economy he’s misusing words and ideas he’s not smart enough to understand. As properly used and understood all a consumer driven economy is saying is that if people aren’t buying stuff the economy will suffer. An economy is built on exchanging goods, services, and money. If one of those becomes seriously lacking the economy shrinks. Nobody who actually understands the terms wants to punish anybody. For one thing we all understand that all the methods of saving that don’t involve your mattress get money in the hands of spenders, that in fact in the long view saving IS consuming, a saver is “spending” their money for interest or ownership stake instead of goods or services.
So if you want to buy into Obie’s gross misunderstanding of the concept that’s on you. But that puts you much more on his side (since you’re buying his poor definitions) than I am.
It’s almost like you’re reading from the talking points of the US Chamber of Crony-Fascists.