Democracy for Vancouver

Spokesmonkey Tony Fratto this morning:

Q Tony, could I follow up on something you said at the gaggle this morning about — in your response to the retail sales numbers? You said, we want consumers to spend. How can they –

MR. FRATTO: We call them consumers.

Q How can they, and why can’t — why should they, when they’re spending so much on gas and food prices, how can they buy other retail items?

MR. FRATTO: No, you’re right, there’s no question. As I said earlier, higher energy prices take — are a drain on the disposable income of families. That’s why we want to see — we want to return to growth, and importantly, wage growth, so that people can afford more of whatever they want. Obviously, there are certain things that they need to spend on, and energy for a lot of families is a growing cost. But, yes, there’s no question it’s a drain on their finances, and we’re concerned about that and we want to — but we need to look at it as the needs of the overall economy.

[emphasis added.]

Where will all those CEOs get their money if we don’t spend all of ours?