From lawn to lattes~The cult(ure) of consumption

If people learned to love their stuff, really love it, then rather than spend their time and money on ‘retail therapy’ they would willingly spend their time and money caring for their things, maintaining them, repairing them, restoring them and, when they had no further use for them, finding those once-cherished objects a new home.

But ‘consumer culture’ means that it is now considered normal to believe that waste creates wealth. The idea that people would spend $10 per litre to buy bottled water and then throw the bottle away is not seen as ‘inefficient’ in the world of economic rationalism, rather, such unnecessary consumption of resources is usually seen as ‘good for the economy’.

Just as the ancient Egyptians used their spare economic capacity to build pyramids and the ancient Chinese built walls, modern consumer capitalism builds mountains of unused appliances, unworn clothes and uneaten food.

‘Consumer culture’ means that it is now considered normal to believe that waste