Consumption Theory - Economics and Ecology: United for a Sustainable World - page 62

The quality of a good or service, or quality of life for the individual, is
afforded little concern. Natural resources are to be used by humans to sup-
port this credo, regardless of what the effects of their depletion or degradation
might be. Consequently, the natural environment as a whole is characterized
as a virtual enemy of economic production.
Further, in the political sphere, a system of unregulated market capitalism
is vaguely extended in the lexicon of civic discourse as the ideal. An unregu-
lated market is the only system that even begins to fit with an ethic that
sanctions unlimited growth through unlimited consumption. Without fur-
ther exploration into the political implications, we say “vaguely” because it is
much easier to invoke generalized public sentiment against government by
simply chastising it as inefficient or calling for “less bureaucratic regulation
and red tape” than it is to specify exactly what this means. On a point-by-
point examination, polling and surveys show that citizens/voters tend to
favor the protections offered by many of the regulations, including protec-
tion of the environment—making it dangerous to delve too deeply into the
subject while on the campaign trail.
Alternatively, human motivation for material satisfaction would be better
focused on meeting basic necessities and limited wants—a notion of suffi-
ciency or “enoughness.” Think about it. A value system that favors continu-
ous acquisition leaves the individual in a perpetual condition of existential
insufficiency and unhappiness. They never have enough. If more is better ,
then enough never comes. Such a person will end up less happy despite
using more resources than someone who consumes fewer resources and yet
experiences contentment. Incidentally, such a result—more satisfaction with
fewer natural resources—ought to qualify as a classic definition of efficiency,
which de facto becomes effectiveness as well. Ironically, it is the pursuit of
the current unenlightened concept of efficiency that has resulted in such an
ineffective system.
If one accepts the notion of sufficiency, and the idea that there might
reasonably be an upper limit on the consumption of most goods and ser-
vices, competition might yield more freely to cooperation. Hoarding thus
becomes seen as unnecessary and so yields sharing. Quantity of goods
gives way to quality of life. Civic attitudes would tend to evolve from
simply wanting government protection from economic exploitation to a
role for government as protector of the long-run health of the commons,
as everyone's birthright, and a provider of basic support services for its
citizens. More support will exist for acting collectively in such areas as
education, public safety, parks, public health, environmental protection,
and infrastructure provision, where involvement of the public sector is not
only possible but also demonstrably more effective than providing these ser-
vices privately.
In the following chapter, we turn to the topic of production , or how the
producing sector of an economy responds to the necessities and desires of
individuals to consume in order to thrive. Nonetheless, the important issues