Consumers are the drivers behind economies.
Consumption is the only drive for any growth in economic activities.
By buying more of a product, we allow the producer of said good to either make more of his product or increase efficiency or quality of their product. Thus, by purchasing more and more products, we promote the betterment of our products as a whole.
Look what happened to Japan.
Consumers saved too much which led to the lost decade and they are still recovering from that.
Hyperconsumption (which is the only way we can get GDP growth at the levels economists and politicians say we want e ... north of 5%) is not sustainable over the long term.
... forgot to add:
Moreover consumption based on debt based on unsustainable rates of asset valuation rise is not sustainable.
Our entire model is based on quicksand.
The perpetual ‘growth’ model won’t work. The only way it can work in the short term is ever increasing consumption. But to do that you have to have an ever increasing asset valuation rise ... or bubbles ... which as we have seen are not sustainable in and of themselves.