PLENTY OF MONEY
The Covid shutdown and subsequent time spent at home accelerated sales of video games in 2020. According to The Wall Street Journal, in just the 4th quarter of 2020, Americans spent nearly $20 billion on video games. Apparently we have plenty of money.
One of life's greatest tensions, I think, is finding the balance between being negative about bad things and being positive about good things. I hear it in the feedback to these posts. If I'm too optimistic about new opportunities, people think I'm a flake and not taking threats seriously. If I harangue on what's horrible, then I'm too negative and complaining.
We actually need both in our world; one is a trumpet on the wall sounding warnings and the other is a trowel and spade building safe havens. The delicate balance is hard because we're all wired toward negativity. Tearing down is far easier than building up. Destruction beats construction in efficiency any time of day.
I'm a generally optimistic, happy, get-'er-done kind of person and find that I have to meter my exposure to the conspiracy and negativity voices. The folks who say we only have 40 harvests left in the world before we all become crispy critters and humans are extinct--wow, a little bit of that goes a long way, no?
By the same token the folks who continue to patronize McDonald's and believe the CDC and Bill Gates are living in dream world la-la land. I'd love to believe that windmills, printing money, and vaccines will send us all into Never-Never Land, but then the old wisdom part of me grabs the kindergartener part of me with a reality check: might be some rocky roads up ahead. Slow down.
All these thoughts ran through my mind as I tried to process the notion that with thousands out of work, septic tanks clogged with anti-decomposing sani-wipes, and anger in every pubic square (why aren't you wearing a mask?), we spent nearly $20 billion in the last quarter on video games, most of which are violent. As a society, are we really this starved for something to do? Something to buy?
Do you know how far $20 billion would go to launch some young farmers? To purchase something other than Chick-fil-A? To acquire some really great food from great farmers? Imagine if all that money patronized non-GMO-produced food, including chickens and pigs. Remember, that's just one quarter.
Yes, with Christmas it's the biggest quarter, but my hunch is that the annual expenditure on video games in America is probably in the $50 billion range. Imagine what $50 billion worth of good would do versus $50 billion worth of couch-sitting violence? This question strikes me as both convicting and highly practical. The problems we rail against are out there, yes, but they're symptomatic of what's in our homes, how our children and grandchildren occupy their time, what they feed their minds, and what adults buy for them and for ourselves.
We love to complain about the enemies out there, but in many cases, we've invited the enemy into our own homes. What we patronize with our money and time says everything about our values and the ultimate practical solutions in which we believe. We only have a few hours, days, and years to sow blessings or cursings. Are we this inept, this vapid, this uncreative that we can't find something more noble, sacred and righteous in which to invest $50 billion than video games?
If you could redirect $50 billion this year away from video games, where would you spend it?