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Lovely explanation, Andrew. One point to add:
But let's suppose you are not underwater on your mortgage, you don't have any credit card debt, you're gainfully employed, and you are staring at a $499 price tag for a 32-inch flat screen HDTV from Sony?
The thing is, the people who are not underwater on their mortgage, don't have any credit card debt, and are gainfully employed -- I write as someone who meets criteria #1 and #2 and, sorta, #3 (self-employed) -- are very often people who got that way because they don't spend their time staring at $499 price tags for things they don't need. I'm not saying financially prudent people are angels; just that prudence begats prudence.
As you say, today the prudent will not make stupid purchases and the profligate no longer have the cash to make stupid purchases (and can't get credit). The trick is to figure out how to grow the economy again without anyone having to go back to being stupid. Which will require a different system from the one we have had.
