The capitalist economic model has been very successful for over 50 years bringing economic prosperity to the West and with it also improving the economic life of the rest of the world through globalization. However, it has peaked and now people are asking: What else?
Prosperity is measured in average GDP figures and the higher that figure the more prosperous a country and its people are. But now there is the realization that all this enhanced GDP has not improved the well being of people. People are unhappy as hell. After years of sustained economic growth and increased personal incomes we must confront the awful fact: People are not any happier. So there is a great contradiction of the modern economic capitalist model. Also, this damn average GDP figure, does not take view of the fact that the majority of the wealth is held in the hands of a few. India has prospered in terms of average GDP and a middle-class, but its poor are poor as hell.
To the West. In the old days people were proud of what they produced as engineer, doctor, carpenter, writer, mechanic. But now people are proud of what they possess, big house, big (and expensive) car, watch, whatever. This is the work of the market place and the advertising media. Everything is based on "growth" and every thing is done to make sure people SPEND, SPEND, SPEND. The more they spend the more prosperous society is. So they change designs to make new attractions for another sale. People can't decide for themselves what they want as the market places fools and cajoles them of what they want. And, sadly this has also spread to the medical establishment.
Although a small number of children do require drug therapy, the boom in prescription of Ritalin reflects expectations of children in a society in the grip of all needing this drug when they do not. Lawrence Diller, a physican whose book Running on Ritalin exposes the misuse of the drug. If a child is a bit inattentive, there goes the parent, the parent who does not have time, take the child to the doctor and the drug is prescribed. Every active child is supposed to have a chemical disorder. Now because I have been active, super active, perhaps I need Ritalin too to calm me down.
Nutritionists describe obesity in terms of energy imbalance, usually caused by excessive calories consumption and insufficient physical activity. In the old days it may have been described as gluttony and sloth. Food suppliers have caught on this weakness and go forth meeting the needs of the consumer palate for them to eat more and more. And the obesity industry is also doing a good business.
Likewise to greed in "eating" there is greed in also consuming other things, and the greed has gotten so great that people will even borrow to consume more and pay more. Teens worry their mums for a $400 pair of sneakers since it has the name of Michael Jordan on it; the same shoes w/o that name may sell for $40. Ditto with other things from kids to adults. Whatever happened to emotional integration to family and friends?. It has all been lost by the curse of money and the curse and greed of over-consumption.
Spending has become a form of entertainment. People must always have a project to cover their depression: the house needs renovation (when it does not), another house, a beach front, etc. There is the unheard cry for recognition and material possessions serve as the pacifier................. promoted by the advertising industry. You are now due for another vacation.
So not only economists are to blame, the whole damn society. And this economic downturn may be a welcome gesture for the West to downshift to a post growth society. Let people rethink again and again, there there is more to life than just economic growth as brilliantly outlined by Clive Hamilton in the Growth Fetish. I must thank Sir Richard Jolly for introducing this book for my reading list.
Mandatory reading for reformers: The Growth Fetish
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