“Overconsumption is the mother of all environmental problems. For the first time in the history of capitalism, consumption itself has become controversial.” FirstsProblemMotherCapitalismFirst TimeEnvironmentalConsumptionConsumerismControversialOverconsumptionEnvironmental Problems Author:Kalle Lasn
“I think so much of neoliberalism and capitalism has caused people to live in a state of greed, fear and consumption that is covering up so much of what we really want.” PeopleThinkingWantStatesCapitalismGreedConsumptionCoveringNeoliberalism Author:Eve Ensler
“The transformation of capitalism is unstoppable because we need limits on resources for humans to survive.” NeedsHumansGrowthLimitsCapitalismResourcesTransformationConsumptionUnstoppable Author:Graciela Chichilnisky
“What worries some people about consumption (and I confess at the outset to be one of these ambivalent creatures, fat but troubled in paradise) is that the affluent, technologically advanced West seems more and more focused not on consuming to live but living to consume. The problem with consumption, and the consumer capitalism that has pushed it to feverish historical extremes, is that it has become so all-consuming.” PeopleProblemSeemsWorryCreaturesCapitalismHistoricalWestExtremesFocusedFatsConsumersParadiseConsumptionConsumerismConsumingOverconsumptionAffluentAmbivalent Author:Rodney Clapp
“It was only in the late nineteenth century and then the twentieth century, with the maturation of consumer capitalism, that a shift was made toward the cultivation of unbounded desire. We must appreciate this to realize that late modern consumption, consumption as we now know it, is not fundamentally about materialism or the consumption of physical goods. Affluence and consumer-oriented capitalism have moved us well beyond the undeniable efficiencies and benefits of refrigeration and indoor plumbing.” KnowsWellsMadeDesireRealizingModernCenturyBenefitsLateCapitalismAppreciateMovedConsumersMaterialismGoodsConsumptionEfficiencyConsumerismTwentieth CenturyNineteenth CenturyOverconsumptionCultivationAffluencePlumbingIndoor Plumbing Author:Rodney Clapp
“The characteristic feature of modern capitalism is mass production of goods destined for consumption by the masses. The result is a tendency towards a continuous improvement in the average standard of living, a progressing enrichment of the many.” ResultsProgressModernMassStandardsCapitalismAverageProductionsImprovementTendenciesFeaturesCharacteristicsGoodsConsumptionDestinedStandards Of LivingContinuous ImprovementEnrichmentMass Production Author:Ludwig von Mises
“No politician can praise unemployment or inflation, and there is no way of combining high employment with stable prices that does not involve some control of income and prices. Otherwise the struggle for more consumption and more income to sustain it-a struggle that modern corporations, modern unions and modern democracy all facilitate and encourage-will drive up prices. Only heavy unemployment will then temper this upward thrust. Not many wish to confront the truth that the modern economy gives a choice only between inflation, unemployment, or controls.” WayGivingDoeChoicesWishStruggleEconomyDemocracyModernPoliticianCapitalismPraiseUnionsHeavyIncomeEmploymentCorporationsTemperStableConsumptionUnemploymentInflationThrustFacilitateCombining Author:John Kenneth Galbraith
“The ideal of a perfectly functioning democracy is one person, one vote; the ideal of a perfectly functioning market is one dollar, one vote.It's a hoary superstition that democratically elected governments invariably function as instruments of the collective will.A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste.” PersonsGovernmentOrderDemocracyWasteCapitalismIdealsVoteFunctionInstrumentsDollarsProductionsCollectivesSuperstitionsConsumptionTrash Author:Dorothy L. Sayers
“According to the International Institute for Environment and Development, the annual amount spent globally on advertising aimed at increasing consumption topped $430 billion in 1998.Consumer capitalism is dedicated to the proposition that production is good in itself, no matter what is produced. The net effect is the massive production of absurd, empty and useless items which are nevertheless utterly serious since we earn our living from them, and dedicate our leisure time to them.” MatterEnvironmentEffectsSeriousDevelopmentAmountCapitalismEmptyNo Matter WhatInternationalProductionsBillionsAbsurdAdvertisingConsumersUselessMassiveDedicatedLeisureConsumptionNeverthelessPropositionsItemsInstituteAnnualsLeisure Time Author:Jacques Ellul
“Living as a slave to unchecked personal desire and subjugated to external circumstances is wearisome. It is a common error to devote a person’s life to earning money. While money relives us from the stress of suffering from deprivation, moneymaking will not make us happy. A person must have passion in life in order to achieve any degree of personal bliss.” DesireCapitalismCapitalistConsumptionConsumerismConsumer CultureMoneymakingConsumerist Book:Dead Toad Scrolls Source: Dead Toad Scrolls
“We are not born to consume; we are born to create.” ArtPhilosophyPurposeHumanityCreationCapitalismAuthenticityMeaningPotentialConsumption Author:Lawrence Nault
“I was deeply concerned from my early teen days about the gulf between superfluous wealth and abject poverty, and my reading of Marx made me ever more conscious of this gulf. Although modern American capitalism had greatly reduced the gap through social reforms, there was still need for a better distribution of wealth. Moreover, Marx had revealed the danger of the profit motive as the sole basis of an economic system: capitalism is always in danger of inspiring men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life. We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity—thus capitalism can lead to a practical materialism that is as pernicious as the materialism taught by communism.” WealthCapitalismGreedProfitCommunismMaterialismConsumptionIncome InequalityKarl MarxWealth Distribution Book:Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story Source: Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story