Fluent Essays

RequirementsWrite a summary for each reading. A summary highlights (emphasizes) the main points of a text.Structure your summary as follows:Name the author (or authors) and title of the text.Identify 2-3 of the major points or ideas of the reading. Be concise. Accurately represent the author’s writings. Use direct quotations from the text.Conclusion: What findings (evidence, conclusions) does the author give?Example of opening sentence:In “__________” (title of article) by __________ (author’s first and last name), the author documents…• Don’t copy sentences verbatim from the text. Summarize the reading in your own words.• Use present tense, for example:The article documents, describes, examines, etc.The author observes, writes, concludes by saying, etc.• Type the following at the top left or right corner of the front-page:Your first & last nameEnvironmental Problems & SolutionsWinter 2020Reading title & author(s)Getting startedGrab the reader’s attention by:Citing an interesting fact or statistic from the reading.Opening with a quote from the reading.Posing a question your summary will answer.Using examples from the reading.Word length• 2.5 pages typed.• 12-sized font (any style).• Double-spaced.• Print single-sided. a_post_consumerism_vision_kate_soper.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview TRANSFORMATIONS SYSTEMIC CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS IN 21ST CENTURY AMERICA A NEW HEDONISM A Post-Consumerism Vision KATE SOPER A NEW HEDONISM TABLE OF CONTENTS Series Introduction ..... 3 Introduction ..... 5 1. Consumerism and Its Discontents ..... 9 2. The Seductions of Postconsumerism ..... 19 3. Moving Towards the New Consumption ..... 24 4. Furthering the New Consumption ..... 29 Conclusion .... 43 Notes ..... 46 TRANSFORMATIONS: Systemic Challenges & Solutions in 21st Century America The United States now confronts a Second Bill of Rights, and by the United daunting array of challenges in the Nations’ 1948 Universal Declaration of well-being of our people, in the conduct Human Rights. Instead, we unleashed a of our international affairs, and in the virulent strain of corporate-consumerist management of our planet’s natural capitalism. This system of political econ- assets, at precisely the moment that it omy—the basic operating system of our has become unimaginable that American society—rewards the pursuit of profit, politics as we know it will deliver the growth, and power and does little to needed responses. The plainest truth is encourage a concern for people, place, that conditions of life in America have and planet. “Ours is the Ruthless Econo- deteriorated across a broad front and are my,” wrote Paul Samuelson and William headed straight to a place we would not Nordhaus in their famous text Macroeco- want for our children and grandchildren. nomics. And indeed it is. When big problems emerge across the To deal successfully with all the challeng- entire spectrum of national life, it cannot es America now faces, we must therefore be for small reasons. We have encom- complement reform, incrementalism, passing problems because of fundamen- and working within the system with at tal flaws in our economic and political least equal efforts aimed at transforma- system. tive change leading to a new political economy—a new operating system that In recent decades America failed to build routinely delivers good results for peo- consistently on the foundations laid by ple and planet at home and around the the New Deal, by Franklin Roosevelt’s world. 3 What then are the American challenges The Next System Project is pleased to that should trouble us most? Here are ten. offer a new series of policy-oriented papers that explore the theme that meeting 1 America’s gravest challenges requires failing democracy and governance systemic change and, relatedly, that 2 race relations and institutional many of the measures needed to address racism our major challenges would themselves 3 climate change and the loss of a be system changing, including what have clean, safe, and beautiful environ- been called non-reformist reforms. This ment new series of papers, “Transformations,” 4 the power of Wall Street banks will show that, while there are short-term 5 the hollowing out of our local com- measures that will help in these areas, their best and only lasting resolution will munities—the places we live occur by moving to a new system. 6 the plight of the American family and American children and the I would like to thank each of the authors tough future they face in this series for their contribution to this 7 vast economic insecurity and the important discussion, and also Kathy concentration of wealth in the 1\% Courrier and Joni Praded for their invalu- 8 the abuse and power of America’s able editorial assistance. giant corporations James Gustave Speth 9 the dearth of meaningful work at Fall 2017 decent wages 10 working long hours or two jobs to make ends meet or in order to buy, buy, buy, with no time left for the things that really matter This list of American challenges is certainly not complete. 4 INTRODUCTION Consumerism is the major cause of global warming and wrecking the planet for future generations. It is driven by a growth economy that favors the ever-expanding consumption of the already very affluent and has allowed the gap between the richest and poorest to grow to inflammatory proportions, both within the nation-state and globally. Today 16 percent of the global population consumes 80 percent of its resources. Americans alone are responsible for around 25 percent of global carbon emissions, and their ecological footprint is five times the global capacity of 1.8 hectares per capita. But the shopping-mall culture is also in dominant life experience of huge num- many ways bad even for those who live bers of people. An existence devoted to in affluent societies. What the economist, the creation of ever more stuff, most of it John Maynard Keynes, condemned as the unneeded other than to enhance corpo- pathology of monetary greed is now not rate profits or to secure the reproduction only regarded as a normal response to of the consumerist economic infra- our times but also an essential driver of structure, leaves all too little time and national well-being. Its effect is to subor- energy for actually having a life. Indeed, dinate everyone to a time economy and it functions as a major constraint on the work ethic that sees free time as a threat self-development and political aware- to human prosperity rather than a form ness required to enjoy a fuller and freer in which it can be realized. Despite the life. Everything that should be central huge gains in productivity, time scarcity, to human pleasure and well-being has stress at work, and insecurity remain the become marginal, whether it be convivial 5 THE NEXT SYSTEM PROJECT: TRANSFORMATIONS time with family or friends, engage- further enhancing the global reach and ment in civic and political projects, the command of corporate power at the enjoyment of hobbies and educational expense of the health and well-being of activities, making music, reading, gar- both the planet and the majority of its dening, being in nature, or just idling. The inhabitants. hedonist deprivation of consumer culture is further compounded by an unhealthy Perhaps the time has come, then, for reliance on fast food and very swift forms America, the nation that has exercised of transport, notably air flight and auto- the most influence on the formation of mobile. Environments free of the noise, the shopping-mall culture, to rethink the stench, light pollution, and congestion of commitment to it: to begin the transition our high-speed existence are now in- to a more sustainable and more sensual- creasingly difficult to find. The constantly ly, spiritually, and aesthetically rewarding expanding supply of commodities re- way of living? Can Americans now re- quires methods of production and distri- spond more publicly to what many have bution that destroy both the ecological always privately sensed—that the passion viability and the aesthetic appearance of for ever more consuming is neither really the environment. They also involve much much of a passion nor a very worthy animal suffering and wildlife extinction, ideal in life? Can they now lead the way and create a legacy of often toxic waste. in overcoming the obsession with cum- One in ten US households now rents a brously materialist acquisition? Can they storage space for their excess clutter, convert to a slower-paced, more time-en- while the junk resulting from domestic riched existence and a more reproductive consumption is also mountainous and manner of meeting their daily needs? well-nigh uncontainable. Although Surveys have suggested that 80 percent promoted by corporate power and its of Americans agree that protecting the advertising industry as the model of the environment will require most of them to “good life” to which everyone should make major changes in the way they live. aspire, in reality there is all too much that Can they now act on that consensus and is dystopian about the consumerist way adopt “one planet” living? of living and it is beginning now to be recognized as such. Indeed, the consum- In this paper, I first expand on the more erist way of life should now be seen for negative aspects of consumer culture, what it has mainly become: a means of and explain why it needs to change and 6 KATE SOPER: A NEW HEDONISM THE NEXT SYSTEM PROJECT: TRANSFORMATIONS why many Americans themselves might progress and instead promote the means want now to do that. In the second part, to allow for creative and non-repetitive I point to the advantages of moving be- lives without social injustice and without yond the consumerist system, and argue environmental damage. This means for an “alternative hedonist” approach to challenging the monopoly of advertising thinking about human well-being, con- over the depiction of the “good life” (and sumption, and the politics of prosperity. especially its manipulation of children). It Part three outlines some of the measures means opening ourselves to new forms already advocated or enacted with a of ownership and control over the means view to curbing the hold of consumer of provision for consumption; to hybrid culture on our life experience and imagi- ways of making and doing that draw nation, and then moves into a discussion on traditional methods alongside newly in part four and the final section of the emerging green technologies; and to a cultural revolution and more systemic so- revised aesthetic of material culture for cioeconomic changes that will be needed which commodities once perceived as to bring about a post-consumerist order. enticingly glamorous lose their appeal by Some examples in this context are pro- virtue of their profligate resource use and vided of the form that would be taken by legacy of unrecyclable waste. a slower-paced, less time-scarce existence and of the benefits it can provide. A cultural revolution along these lines will be comparable in the forms of social Overall I argue for a profound revision transformation and personal epiphany in the ways in which we think about the it will demand to those brought about nature and conditions of human flourish- through the feminist, anti-racist, and ing. This will be comparable, in its scope anti-colonialist movements of recent his- and radicalism, to the socioeconomic tory. It will not be easy to mount, and will reorganization argued for in other Next be fiercely opposed by those currently in System Project papers. Indeed, it will be power. But the gains it promises will be a condition of creating the necessary immense (indeed, without it the long- support for any such practical changes, term future is bleak for everyone). Those and hence an essential cultural dimen- who commit to a renaissance movement sion of them. We have to break with the of this kind are not likely ever to regret it, social and environmental exploitations nor will those who come after them. of money-driven, high-speed ideas of 7 KATE SOPER: A NEW HEDONISM 8 KATE SOPER: A NEW HEDONISM I. CONSUMERISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS THE CONSUMERIST WAY OF LIFE IS GOOD FOR GROWTH through articles or services provided on Dubbed the land of “Coca-Cola culture,” of well-being, that holds sway around America has long been associated with the world and to which many less indus- a “consumerist” way of living. It has, trialized economies continue to aspire. indeed, proved to be the major global Its monopoly is not accidental, but has influence in developing a notion of the followed from America’s leading role in “good life” centered on shopping, the the establishment of the now- globalized, everyday use of car and air flight, and capitalist economy. Since this is a prof- the acquisition of an ever-expanding it-driven system that ultimately measures range of material goods and services. prosperity by how much gets spent on The consumer culture that has grown goods and services, constantly expand- up around this lifestyle is resistant to ing markets are essential and more is non-commodified means of advancing always better. the market. Today it is this culture, with its materialistic and expansionary model well-being and personal fulfilment, and is in branding, packaging, advertising, BUT IS VERY BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT and other inducements to purchase. Its But more is far from being better if we productive mission is the multiplication measure it by its impact on resource use and diversification of goods to satisfy and carbon emissions. By that gauge, already experienced forms of need and, growth-driven consumerism is the worst wherever possible, the creation of new offender and poses an ever-more serious “needs”—provided these can be met environmental threat. Almost all of this backed by an unprecedented investment 9 KATE SOPER: A NEW HEDONISM THE NEXT SYSTEM PROJECT: TRANSFORMATIONS growth has taken place within the last by 150 percent.4 In the EU, emissions 150 years. By 1990, the world’s people have indeed been decoupled from had already consumed as many goods growth between 1990 and 2012, but and services (measured in constant only at a rate of 1 percent, which is only dollars) since 1950 as in all previous a quarter of that needed to reach the generations put together. Even now, European Commission’s roadmap aim to despite the e-economy and greener reduce emissions to 80 percent below technologies, more raw materials are 1990 levels by 2050.5 Such decoupling, being consumed than ever before in as has been achieved in affluent nations, human history (and in a very unequal is also in part due to reliance on emis- distribution: 16 percent of the global pop- sion-intensive imports from China and ulation currently consume 80 percent of elsewhere. If the American model of the the earth’s resources).2 “good life” were to be made available to 1 all, then it would need at least three more Some economists nonetheless argue planets to provide for the necessary that greener technologies will allow this resources. To measure success in terms expansion indefinitely to continue and of market expansion in consumer goods that we can have unending (if more is thus to measure success by failure.6 eco-friendly) growth with little alteration elites like to believe them, and continue A DRIVER OF EVERWIDENING INEQUALITY to measure success in terms of market Extending commodity production and growth. But the capacity of new technol- exchange has always involved intense ogy to provide for indefinitely sustainable exploitation not only of nature but also production is confounded by figures that of human labor. (Consider the near-slave reveal that more efficient technologies conditions of miners in the extractive have hitherto always gone together with industries of Africa; the workers locked an overall expansion in resource use overnight in Bangladeshi factories to and commodities.3 Since 1975, American meet the timelines of the fashion in- energy consumed per dollar of GDP has dustry; or the quasi apartheid between been cut by a half, but energy demand those who enjoy and those who service has increased by 40 percent; in aviation the global playgrounds of the wealth likewise, fuel efficiency has increased by makers.) The dependency of affluent 40 percent, but total fuel use increased living in the Global North on the dire to lifestyle. Governments and corporate 10 KATE SOPER: A NEW HEDONISM THE NEXT SYSTEM PROJECT: TRANSFORMATIONS working conditions and impoverishment of a leading economist at the World of the most deprived sectors of the Bank, both relative and absolute global global community continues apace and inequality is now higher than at any in many areas is compounded today earlier point in human history.10 Most of by the devastation caused by climate the wealth of the wealthiest, moreover, change. Despite the claims of its “trick- now comes from dividends, interest, and le-down” advocates, consumer culture rents derived from using accumulated has proved a driver of ever-widening assets (such as shares, property, and inequalities. It has favored the greed and cash deposits) to extract wealth from the ever more conspicuous—and environ- goods and services produced by others, mentally vandalizing—consumption of with less than 20 percent earned from the already very wealthy, and allowed wages and salaries.11 the gap between rich and poor to grow the nation-state and globally. The highest EXPLOSIVE POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES annual incomes in the United States are Injustice and inequality on this scale do in excess of one billion dollars—60,000 not bode well for the future of humanity. times more than a minimum-wage work- We are already seeing their impact in the er.7 Since 1980, the global economy has rejection of established political elites, grown by 380 percent, but the number widescale opposition to immigration, of people living in poverty on less than racism, and fanatical nationalism. If left $5 a day has increased by more than 1.1 unchecked, they will surely have even billion.8 During the years of sustained more explosive consequences in coming economic growth between 1990 and decades. The evidence suggests, in fact, 2005 in the major economies of China, that the longer the consumerist concep- India, and the United States, the rich tion of the “good life” retains its hold, the became relatively richer and the poor greater the impact on global warming, relatively poorer. In the seventeen years the more intense the competition for between 1990 and 2007, the bottom viable territory and resources, and the billion increased their share of global more uncivil the methods to which richer income by just 0.18 percentage points.9 societies are likely to have recourse in At this rate of progress, it would take 855 defending their relative advantage. Such years for the bottom billion to receive 10 measures are likely to encourage increas- percent of global income. In the estimate ingly desperate forms of terrorist activity, to inflammatory proportions both within 11 KATE SOPER: A NEW HEDONISM THE NEXT SYSTEM PROJECT: TRANSFORMATIONS and could end in genocidal—even termi- standard of living (measured in terms nal—forms of global warfare. If viewed in of marketed goods and services), every this light, positions currently defended worker in the United States could have as “realistic” may quite quickly come to been taking every other year off from appear utterly shortsighted. The need for work with pay.12 Instead, free time fell by systemic change has never been more nearly 40 percent post-1973; although urgent. the average American by 1990 owned and consumed more than twice as much THE WORK AND SPEND SPIRAL as he or she did in 1948, they also had But the system needs changing, not only has also been on the rise, with eight out because of the environmental devas- of ten Americans shown to be suffering tation and global injustice it is driving, from it in a recent survey.13 The tenden- but also because it is spoiling lives and cy, moreover, has been for the more sapping the potential for happiness even “workaholic” elements to set the pace for within affluent societies. It makes money, everyone else, with the threat of loss of but it also stands in the way of genuine work or promotion opportunities being personal fulfilment and not least through used as a constant discipline against the impact it has on time expenditure, resistance to longer hours. It is true that and thus on human life experience as those who spend most time on the job a whole. Consumer culture is not only are often already high earners, dri ... Purchase answer to see full attachment