America, the Devourer of Soles (and Shirts)

Devourer. The newest word to add into regular use in my vocabulary..

From Bruce Benidt at The Same Rowdy Crowd:

My friend Ron Meador, environmental writer for MinnPost, on Earth Day this year recalled a conversation with the conservationist writer Scott Russell Sanders. Meador wrote of Sanders’s “wry suggestion that we might reframe our consumption habits with a slight shift of language:

‘As a first step in that direction, let us quit using the word “consumer” for a season and use instead the close synonym, “devourer.” Thus, the Office of Consumer Affairs would become the Office of Devourer Affairs. In schools, the study of consumer science, which used to be called home economics, would become devourer science. Savvy shoppers would subscribe to Devourer Reports. Pollsters would conduct devourer surveys. Newspapers would track the ups and downs of the devourer price index.’”