Our society has now evolved into one who's basic paradigm is made up production, consumption, and growth with little thought to disposal, reuse, and steady-state, thus it is unbalanced and prone to failure. This explains what is occurring at this moment with the world financial market.
Prior to the current Bursting of the Bubble everyone in the financial world was concerned with growth: growth in sales, growth in profit, growth in production, growth, growth, growth. Every book I have read on starting a business talks about the financial plan where you map out how the company grows over the next one, two, and five years. I have never seen a plan that talked about growing to a certain point then remaining at a specific rate of sales. Nor have I ever seen a plan that talks about obsolescence and recycling of products (unless the business is a recycling business.) Most businesses would seem to want to wash their hands of a product once it sells unless there is a way to make even more money after the sale, for example inkjet printers which could be given away for free when you factor in the profits that could be realized through sales of inkjet cartridges and paper.
Back in the day a house, or car, or stove were bought with the thought that they would be used for decades or more. A house was a place to live, raise children, and retire in. A car was bough and maintained with the thought that it had to last the owner for many years. Appliances were literally used until they disintegrated. Most items were bought based on quality and value for for the price. People were willing to wait and save up until they had enough money to buy things with cash.
Today, it is so very different. Houses are bought as investments that are fixed-up and sold within a few months. Cars are bought every couple of years as are appliances. Business has responded by making stuff that will last a short time but which can be manufactured by the millions. The disposable society is in running at full steam.
Can this paradigm last much longer? I doubt it. The amount of oil is finite as is water, trees, and most raw materials. On the flip side there is the problem of what to do with the trash generated. Landfills are in short supply and recycling is only in its infancy where it will remain unless someone comes with some really good ideas.
In my humble opinion, the current paradigm our society subscribes to can be summed up as:
- Unlimited Growth
- Unconstrained consumption
- Disposable Mentality
- Belief in unlimited resources
This is truly a recipe for disaster.
2 comments:
Somewhere on the Web, there is an interesting story about aluminum cans. The aluminum industry was ramped up for WWII. When the war ended, we had all this excess capacity with no reason to exist. So they mounted a big campaign to get everyone to use aluminum cans.
The problem is not the supply of bauxite. Apparently we has a lot of that. The problem is that the manufacture of aluminum takes a lot of energy. So we use all this energy to sell people small amounts of what is essentially sugar water, and to ship it all over the country.
It is incredibly inefficient. Among other things, it shows the falsity of the argument that a free market will always result in efficiency. It clearly does no such thing.
Personally, I don't think a totally free marked can work because people are greedy. Even a cursory examination will show that a great deal of our society's woes can be trace to our need to have it all and have it now. This of course is in my most humble opinion.
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