After WW2, Truman established the Council of Economic Advisors, which recommended that consumption become the new economic driver. Victor Lebow put it most succinctly when he wrote, in 1955 in the Journal of Retailing, that to maintain economic growth:
"Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats — his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies.
These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer with a special urgency. We require not only “forced draft” consumption, but “expensive” consumption as well. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace. We need to have people eat, drink, dress, ride, live, with ever more complicated and, therefore, constantly more expensive consumption. The home power tools and the whole “do-it-yourself” movement are excellent examples of “expensive” consumption."
Suzuki goes on to discuss growth:
"How can growth be the goal or purpose of an economy? It is the context within which growth occurs — what caused the growth, what the increased economy is to be used for, what the impact of that growth will be on people and ecosystems — that is all important. For example, our bodies required constant production of blood cells to replace the oens that die. But unbridled growth in any part of the body, even of blood cells, is, of course, cancerous and impossible to sustain in the human body or any system within the biosphere.
And by focusing on growth, we fail to ask the most important questions, like "How much is enough?" "What are the limits?" "Are we happier with all this growth?" and "What is an economy for?""
These words really resonated with me, and I ask you all to think about these questions. And share your ideas with me and others.
3 comments:
I'm tending to agree that the constant drive for growth may not be all it's cut out to be.
From the GPI Atlantic website:
"Crime, war, pollution, tobacco smoking, and car accidents all cause people to spend money - and so they all increase the GDP. The more trees we fell, the more fish we catch, the more fossil fuels we burn, the more greenhouse gases we emit, the more the GDP increases."
There are fascinating things to be learned from Bhutan's Gross National Happiness measure as well the Genuine Progress Index/Indicator.
All that said, I can't help but view myself as yet another cog in the machine of growth. Sort of unstoppable, it feels.
Interesting to discover in so many different way how our current position was deliberately chosen... sounds like a good read. a few years ago I enjoyed the 30 year update edition to the book Limits to Growth, not as a doomsday warning but as a deliberation on what are our means of making/trusting predictions.
Dan, such good points. Bhutan and many other 'poor' countries are proof that people can be happy under any circumstances given certain basic needs are met. Daniel Kahneman, a nobel prize winning psychologist (he invented behavioural economics) gave a TED talk where he outlined that in the USA, for people making over $60'000 per year, there is absolutely zero correlation to increased happiness. But below $60k, a very strong correlation.
Nic, there's an Aussie guy named Clive Hamilton that writes about the 'growth fetish' of society. It's always enlightening but depressing to learn that these ideas have been around for such a long time, and little has changed. But I feel today there is some movement away from this growth mentality, specifically with the recent backlashes against corporate greed and bank bailouts. Or perhaps I'm just projecting my optimism into my worldview.
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