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The Iphone mania got me thinking about this, it's not just limited to phones, the January sales, 3D tv, blue ray, the rush for the latest numberplate, cheap holidays abroad etc.
As a nation we have come to expect this, our economy has built itself around servicing the debt attached to consumerism and providing for it.
I read today we have hit 62 million people.
Can things really be sustained at this level, do we have the resource to do so or is the recent popping of the financial ballon a harbinger of worse to come?
I don't know much about economics so it's a genuine question, can the consumer society just keep growing forever?
Yes and no.
Capitalism works because one persons self interest benifits others.
you buy from a shop, shopkeeper feeds his family, etc etc
problem is most transactions come with external costs (costs to society not taken into the consumers buying decision) e.g. toxic waste in china from building your telly
Until external costs are FULLY taken into account in consumers buying decisions (eg polution taxes/ waste taxes etc) then we will just keep buying and keep stripping our planet.
eventually resource scarcity will force prices up enough that we will have to innovate around our propblems but its 50/50 wether our planet will be inhabitable by that point if you ask me.
Live fast Die young 🙂
watched this earlier this week (the story of stuff original video)
VERY interesting, but HAS to be taken with a pinch of salt as she is a bit of an Eco-mentalist
many interesting bullet points.
like, "who pays for our stuff?" cause we sure as hell dont!
and the bit about the american government using consumerism as a theorey, to boost the economy rapidly after the war (also see "Madmen" tv series) and it spiraling upwards from there.
Utterly utterly depressing if you ask me.
Makes Fallout (the game) look like a really appealing place to be
No, Everything is finite and will run out eventually, unless we find another planet to pillage of course, even if free energy is invented we will run out of resources/raw materials if the population keeps increasing because recycling won't keep up with increased demand, doomed I tell you doomed!
I'm reading Matthew Crawford's The Case for Working with your Hands at the moment (highly recommended) and there are interesting points about debt raised. We didn't truly become consumers until we could buy 'stuff' on the never-never. Thereafter, having 'stuff' became a mark of legitimacy, of being worthy of trust. (Plus, we're then locked into servicing that credit or rather debt through work.) Definitely worth a read, if you don't mind becoming a bit depressed.
Crawford also quotes Benjamin Franklin: Be frugal and free. Wise words.
There's no future in England's dreaming...
Even more true 30 years on
I'm going to learn Chinese...