Rampant Consumerism

Date Mon 4 Jun 2007 | Leave a Comment

There’s no doubt that the Australian government is dragging its feet on the environment. And it’s highly likely that we’ll never see an adequate response to climate change and environmental degradation until we the people demand it.

Typical of governments blinded by their desperation to be re-elected their focus is still on “economic growth” and maintenance of our “current living standards”.

What we hear from Howard is that “his” government wants to take a “measured approach” to climate change that will not impact adversely on the Australian economy or our “standard of living.”

John Howard carefully measures everything he says. He’s the consummate, “clever and increasingly cunning” politician. What he is doing here is attempting to reinforce the notion that we’re doing well.

“We’ve never had it so good” he tells us. He cites our current economic situation as a testament to “his” government’s economic credentials. But let’s quickly explore those economic credentials and our current “standard of living”…

  • Australia is in the throes of a housing affordability crisis.
  • Australia continues to import more than it exports despite a 10 year resources boom
  • Australia is essentially living on borrowed money with growing foreign debt currently around $530 Billion
  • Australia’s gap between rich and poor is widening

Those 4 economic indicators alone indicate that we are not in good shape economically.

Howard appears to subscribe to the philosophy that if he simply keeps saying everything’s good… everything’s good… everything’s good… everything’s good that somehow the people of Australia will be mesmerized into believing it.

The economy is not good. It merely appears good. It’s only an illusion that rampant consumerism is creating.

It’s fair to say that we are currently participating in an orgy of consumption that masks the underlying problems.

The Real “Standard Of Living”

If we take the emphasis away from rampant consumption and ownership of material possessions surely it’s hard to conclude that our living standard has improved in the last 30 or 40 years or that it is even “high”.

Truth is that the well-being of a society is not really represented by crude measures like mathematically derived standard of living indices. The true well-being of a society must take into account more subjective human ideals to arrive at a measure of the quality of life.

How does Australia fare in that respect? One need only look at a few facts…

  • Australians are carrying high levels of personal debt
  • Housing affordability is low - more and more Australians simply cannot afford to buy or even rent a home.
  • Australian suicide rates are high.
  • Australian divorce rates are high as families succumb to financial pressure.
  • Australians are under-employed. Despite government claims of low unemployment the reality is that more people are working part-time and casual positions.
  • Australian job security is low.
  • Australian families now need two incomes to make ends meet

If you cast a critical eye over the Australian “quality of life” you will not see any real improvements over that which our system offered some 30 or 40 years ago.

Our governments obsession with economic growth and the maintenance of a “high living standard” in material terms is directly responsible for environmental degradation.

The Australian government is still actively promoting the accrual of material wealth i.e. rampant consumerism despite all the warnings nature and science are now sending.

The Right Response To Environmental Degradation

The root cause of environmental degradation is quite obviously rampant consumerism without regard for the environment. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to see it. Accordingly, education campaigns to help curb our insatiable appetite for consumer goods would seem to be the first place to start.

Instead we see a government whose primary focus to date has been carbon trading and other means to “offset” the release of carbon dioxide within some framework to make the continued production of carbon dioxide more palatable.
While it’s true that over time, carbon trading will raise the price of consumer goods and ultimately curb buying (in theory), Carbon trading is a bandaid that doesn’t address the core problem of rampant consumerism.

Why are we not seeing education campaigns with a clear message that our current levels of consumption are unsustainable?

Surely it’s simple to run community service announcements that encourage less consumption. Consumer manipulation through advertising is such a trivial matter. After all, advertising drives rampant consumerism so it can surely counter the same.

Government is clearly missing the point on climate change. A secure sustainable lifestyle cannot be built around rampant consumerism.