Tim Jackson on the Demerits of Perpetual Economic Growth

Favorite quotations, etc.
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NYC ERE
Posts: 433
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 8:03 pm

Post by NYC ERE »

I thought this was very relevant to themes of ERE. If you're short on time, check out chapter 8, which contains the following passage:
"Here's the story of those [negative personal savings, pre-crash] years in our consumer society: The story of us being encouraged--persuaded, perhaps--to spend money we don't have on things we don't need, to create impressions that won't last, on people who we don't care about, or worse still, who don't care about us."


gibberade
Posts: 92
Joined: Wed Sep 22, 2010 1:53 pm

Post by gibberade »

GREAT VIDEO. I watched it earlier and I loved his message.
That quote stood out for me too.
Jackson's premise is that the economy only addresses one aspect of what it means to be human: Novelty. Novelty is overly prevalent in our materialistic society. New iPods, malls, new cars, planned obsolescence, etc.

This economy based on novelty distracts us from real problems. We are too busy with email, rush hour, television, shopping and so on. Instead of solving, say, climate change, we spend our time chasing novelty. We have to spend, or the economy crashes (even in that case, we have governments to stimulate our spending). Also, note how dissatisfying our economy is. Sure, novelty is fun and good. But there is such a thing as too much novelty. There is more to life than earning and spending.


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