Notable in the paper the other day, was a news item about The White House encouraging other countries to increase their rate of consumption.
It was an interesting read. Not because of Obama’s preoccupation with the consumptive patterns of foreign nations but, more so, because of the very emphasis on consumption itself.
It all reminded me of a conversation I had, many years back, with my good friend Alec.
Over a long coffee (in both time and type), Alec and I began discussing the unwritten expectations, the oblique rules that we—the everyday folk, the working schleps, the ones who rise with the sun, put in a hard day, and then get to go home so we can do it all again tomorrow—are encouraged to adhere to.
During our meandering debate, the topic turned to money, finance and the economy; and it was at that point that Alec mused a phrase I immediately liked. One that resonates with me still.
We are, Alec suggested, no more than foot soldiers; mere combatants in an economic battlefield.
Nodding in appreciation, and mulling it over, I replied that we are combatants, yes. But combatants with one clear mission.
To consume as much as is humanly possible.
To this day, I believe the numero uno behavioural trait the movers and shakers—the major domos of government and big business—stir up in us is our insatiable appetite for consumption. In this western way of life, society expects and encourages us to be unflagging, unwavering, tireless consumers—ones that, should our rate of consumption vary, it should do so by varying upward. Never downward.
And, when all goes well, when everyone is spending, that hum you hear is the sound of society’s economic engine smoothly ticking over, fuelled by the sweat of workers in mostly-offshore factories, and by the slack in your revolving line of credit.
It’s simple. Society wants us to consume, and then consume some more. Stop consuming, though, and the engine misfires, the gears stop turning; and all the hounds of hell break loose.
And yet, this addiction to consumerism, this devotion to mass consumption has left too many stressed out and tapped out—overextended in terms of health, time, lifestyle and credit.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not against consumption per se. I understand that consumption is the intricate, delicate variable in the economic equation of supply and demand. (And I do my bit too, having in the past assumed an occasional consumptive attitude myself).
What I object to, though, are the two G’s (growth and greed) that are all-too-evident in most economic, financial or business models.
What I also object to is government and big business’s relentless boosterism of mindless mass consumption, which provokes a greed-driven feeding frenzy which, ultimately, leads to a financial hangover that—yes you got it—many are still trying to recover from.
And what I even-more-strongly object to is this impossible belief, championed by the cheerleaders of marketing and advertising, that consumption leads to greater satisfaction, heightened self-worth and, ultimately, true happiness.
I object to that, because it ain’t so. It just ain’t so. Satisfaction, meaning, and true happiness doesn’t flow from the showroom floor nor is it found on the shelves of the latest hot retailer.
All I’m saying, I guess, is it’s time to reset our expectations. It’s time to tone down the growth and the greed. Even if it’s just by a little.
