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Guest Post: Degrowth, Anti-Consumerism And Peak Consumption

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog

,

Degrowth embraces the ongoing devolution of paid work and wealth that cannot be reversed.

 
The anti-consumerism Degrowth movement is gaining visibility and adherents in Europe. Degrowth (French: décroissance, Spanish: decrecimiento, Italian: decrescita) recognizes that the mindless expansion of mindless consumption fueled by credit and financialization is qualitatively and quantitatively different from positive growth.
 
Degrowth is based on a number of principles:
 

1. Consumerism is psychological/spiritual junk food (French: malbouffe) that actively reduces well-being (bien-etre) rather than increases it.
 
2. Better rather than more: well-being is increased by everything that cannot be commoditized by a market economy or financialized by a cartel-state financial machine-- friendship, family, community, self-cultivation-- rather than by acquiring more. The goal of economic and social growth should be better, not more. On a national scale, the cancerous-growth measured by gross domestic product (GDP) should be replaced with gross domestic happiness/ gross nation happiness (GNH).
 
3. A recognition that resources are not infinite, despite claims to the contrary. Even if fossil fuels were infinite and low-cost (cheerleaders never mention costs of extraction and refining or the external costs), fisheries, soil and fresh water are not. For one example of many: China Is Plundering the Planet's Seas

 (The Atlantic). Indeed, all the evidence suggests that access to cheap energy only speeds up the depletion and despoliation of every other resource.
 
4. The unsustainability of consumerist consumption dependent on resource depletion and financialization (i.e. the endless expansion of credit and phantom collateral).
 
5. The diminishing returns on consumption. Investing in clean air and water, public transit, universally accessible knowledge/information--these forms of consumption yield high returns in public health, affordable mobility, etc. Buying clothing to wear once or twice and then throw away does not.

 
The investment in the rule of law, public infrastructure and universal access to clean air, water and education moves nations from developing to developed and greatly improves the material lives of the residents. Beyond this, consumption of resources offers diminishing returns up to a point of social/spiritual/ psychological derangement. Consumption beyond this point actively reduces well- being.
 
6. The failure of neoliberal capitalism and communism alike in their pursuit of growth at any cost.
 
7. We have reached Peak Consumption (video 27:30 minutes).
 
The Degrowth movement explicitly questions what John Michael Greer calls the religion of progress (i.e. growth). The civil religion that growth equals progress is akin to the Cargo Cult of Keynesianism, the notion that growth is so essential that expanding debt exponentially to drive diminishing returns of growth is necessary.

 
But both the religion of growth and its Cargo Cult enablers are merely superficial facades masking the real force: the expansion of global finance via financialization.Expanding capital, profits and power is the key agenda, and the quasi-religion of growth is just the public-relations narrative that mesmerizes the debt-serfs, political toadies and media sycophants.
 
What does Degrowth mean in practical terms? Use the thing until it cannot be repaired. Don't ditch the mobile phone, auto, dress or digital device until it can no longer repaired. Buy local rather than than global-corporate whenever feasible. Crave less, need less, want less, resist the brainwashing of 24/7 marketing. Learn to become a person who does not need corporate-status signifiers for a sense of identity.
 

In a very real way, Degrowth embraces the devolution of paid work and wealth that cannot be reversed. Growth and consumption based on financialization, expanding credit and phantom collateral is unsustainable and will devolve or implode. Rather than pine for what cannot be, it's far healthier to embrace using less of everything and increasing well-being by leveraging the web, the commons and what cannot be commoditized or financialized.

New video with CHS and Gordon Long: Peak Consumption (27:30)

 

 

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Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:23 | 3548144 W T F II
W T F II's picture

When you cannot do something you're told you need to do you eventually give up.

Should be BULLISH for markets, banks and sovereigns...NOT

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:31 | 3548165 hedgeless_horseman
hedgeless_horseman's picture

 

 

Disintermediation should bring growth to a local community, not de-growth.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:32 | 3548181 jbvtme
jbvtme's picture

Vote up!

0
Vote down!

0

i have cut my consumption to books, food and gas.  no restaurants, theater, clothes, music, real estate... fuck 'em

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:55 | 3548194 hedgeless_horseman
hedgeless_horseman's picture

 

 

Vote Up:  I have stopped exporting most of my capital to other cities, states, and nations.

Vote Down:  I heart Wal*Mart, Nike, Happy Motoring, and Globalism.

Butter from our Milking Shorthorn.

 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:57 | 3548284 McMolotov
McMolotov's picture

You say it's butter, but it could be yellowcake uranium. Prepare to be droned, comrade.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:02 | 3548576 Kobe Beef
Kobe Beef's picture

Don't look now, but Colon (sic) Powell is gassing up the ol' Power Point.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:35 | 3548196 Manthong
Manthong's picture

Here is some consumerism …

LOLOLOL

Illinois, the SOK’s (son of a Kenyan) “home” state gets $2 Million in brand new, unplanned revenue since the beginning of the year.. and they are vexed.. why?

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/05/09/illinois-swamped-by-surge-in-firearm-owner-applications/

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:46 | 3548203 Manthong
Manthong's picture

btw.  The SOK is a soks fan..  that is where “kaminski field”  is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPUhulaRzpU

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:38 | 3548207 zipit
zipit's picture

What about dating budget (or are you down to porn streams and torrents)?

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:30 | 3548444 jbvtme
jbvtme's picture

i have a wife on that payroll

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 15:02 | 3549290 Scarlett
Scarlett's picture

and what do you do for sex?

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:45 | 3548226 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

Damn.  On another thread we are discussing Hollywood and predictive programming.  One can't help but wonder if shows like The Walking Dead (title says it all) isn't setting us up for some ungodly situation.  After all, masses of starving people would probably be moving pretty slow....

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:54 | 3548262 McMolotov
McMolotov's picture

The first thing I thought of when I read the article and saw HH's zombie picture was this song and video by Pearl Jam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI

All of our "progress" will end up killing us.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:43 | 3548504 Sean7k
Sean7k's picture

This article might as well been written by the Elites. Expect less, live on less, but trust is government and law to provide a better standard of living. Dressed up as a report on degrowth and conservation, this is propaganda of the worst type.

All of it is true, until you associate the State with an improved standard of living- because tyranny is the wost standard there is. Any guesses on who will determine the allocaion of resources? The State?  The cost of said resources? The State?

I didn't realize CHS had gone over to the other side...

 

 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:57 | 3548554 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

Umm... there's only one sentence even mentioning the state's "public goods." The remainder of the article is true regardless of intention of the messenger. I didn't watch the video.

IMO, it's just a restatement of Mises' credit-fueled crack-up boom.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:48 | 3548574 Sean7k
Sean7k's picture

I believe I stated that. Since that is the only resource provided, I believe the charge is appropiate. If you can't see the propaganda value, it is valuable indeed.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 14:28 | 3549163 Matt
Matt's picture

Also, where does he think positive exports are going to come from? Someone else will have to become a net importer for that to happen.

Sat, 05/11/2013 - 08:01 | 3551096 drdolittle
drdolittle's picture

Thanks hedgeless, I needed a laugh before work today.

BTW, new laws are making it very hard to eat local. Many times your not even told country of origin ( I will not knowingly eat food from China but apparently it's unfair trade to label food)

Kroger sells "pink salmon" "wild caught". Used to be from China but now has no label hmmmm...

I would rather buy grass finished steak froma guy an hour away than steak from "product of china, mexico or canada" that was raised in a feedlot with 10k other animals basically walking on a mountain of cow shit

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:32 | 3548167 jbvtme
jbvtme's picture

nada

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:24 | 3548145 Whoa Dammit
Whoa Dammit's picture

Degrowth just tries to make poverty seem better. 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:31 | 3548171 BobPaulson
BobPaulson's picture

I'm certainly open to a new definition of "wealth" because the current one seems headed to cause our annihilation if we don't focus on happiness instead of useless shit.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:38 | 3548204 Whoa Dammit
Whoa Dammit's picture

The fact of the matter is that most people are working to just maybe pay  bills for food, clothing, shelter, car expenenses, utilities, and insurance while a few loll around in luxury. I don't care what its called, or how its sugar coated, it's not right and it SUCKS!!!

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 14:30 | 3549172 Matt
Matt's picture

If the clothes, shelter and cars didn't need constant replacement due to planned and percieved obsolecence, the people would have a lot more.

As long as there is "free trade" / globalization, real wages will continue to fall towards the global median. 

Sat, 05/11/2013 - 08:04 | 3551098 drdolittle
drdolittle's picture

and environmntal protection will also go to the lowest common denominator

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:40 | 3548206 mayhem_korner
mayhem_korner's picture

 

 

If you are content, why worry about the definition of "wealth" or even who has it?  If others' wealth (relative to yours) is a cause of discontent, you are stuck and it won't matter how you define "wealth".

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:48 | 3548762 ThirdWorldDude
ThirdWorldDude's picture

Welcome to Earth, home of the sheeple who're thriving on endless pastures of propaganda of all kinds...

Seriously, your comment implies that a large chunk of the population is self-aware and have developed critical thinking. I think you need to go out more often.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:25 | 3548149 SheepDog-One
SheepDog-One's picture

America- FUCK YEAH!

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:10 | 3548614 JuliaS
JuliaS's picture

One word too many.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:26 | 3548151 mayhem_korner
mayhem_korner's picture

 

 

Was this the final version, or the 3am hemp-influenced draft?

(still looking for the zero on the rating scale...)

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:38 | 3548155 LawsofPhysics
LawsofPhysics's picture

That which cannot be sustained won't be.  Lots of things look great on paper, or in the world of paper promises, but talk to an engineer about making things a reality. 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:40 | 3548211 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Agreed.  Reality is deeply out of favor these days, obviously.  It isn't always fun, pretty or cheap.  Which is why I still like it.

I'll be helping to swap a new TH-400 transmission into my buddy's turbocharged 72 Chevelle later today.  He's never changed a transmission out before, but he just HAS TO HAVE a better transmission in his car.  ENTER REALITY!  On paper, it seems simple.  In reality, laying on your back in the driveway..... he's gonna pay his dues on this little project!

No ammount of friendship, love or togetherness is going to get the old trans out and the new one in.  Only tools,  labor and the knowlege of how to do the task will get it done.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:54 | 3548265 NidStyles
NidStyles's picture

It's a tranny swap. It's not like he's disassembling it and putting it back together or anything.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:40 | 3548493 Sofa King Confused
Sofa King Confused's picture

It's a tranny swap..........that sounds nasty

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:42 | 3548502 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

He's not ready for that yet.  Guess who did the upgrade and rebuild on the new trans prior to it going in?  I'll give you three guesses and your first two don't count.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:02 | 3548314 WhiteNight123129
WhiteNight123129's picture

SHORT TREASURIES BITCHEZ!!!

As for commodities, Drucknemiller is correct, misreading on the part of miners of the trend in base metals and China reason for massive stimulus back in 2009. I think though I spotted a massive error from Druckenmiller.

There it is:

"The last 11 years was an aberration, a deviation from the long-term trend of declining commodities prices as technology reduced the cost of extraction.”

The statement from Druckenmiller is correct only at equal resources quality. I.e. if Saudi oil is enough to serve all the oil demand, the higher technology will lower commodity prices, but once you have used up this, you are forced to get fracking or tar sands.

This statement from Druckenmiller is equivalent to assume the world food supply can be grown in a flower pot or that there is a infinite supply of equal quality commodity resource.

The aberration is neither the increase nor the decline.  www.durationreport.com

 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:57 | 3548160 Mercury
Mercury's picture

"Degrowth" is cool with this crowd....but not when it comes to government.

How come technology keeps making everything better, faster and cheaper and more work gets accomplished with fewer and fewer workers but the government keeps getting bigger and more intrusive every year?

 

Is  "peak government" ever a concern or can it expand forever?

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:29 | 3548162 hooligan2009
hooligan2009's picture

very interesting..

how much are degrowthers willing to reduce their liestyles by paing back odious debt? or is it a "revolution now" with debt repudiation?

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:35 | 3548166 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

Why not just say Small is Beautiful.  Nothing was said here that wasn't said back in the eighties, and then it was said far more understandably

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:36 | 3548197 mayhem_korner
mayhem_korner's picture

 

 

...and the sixties, and the seventies, and ever since.  New un-speak, nothing more. 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:33 | 3548182 csmith
csmith's picture

Beyond this, consumption of resources offers diminishing returns up to a point of social/spiritual/ psychological derangement.

 

Problem is, 1/2 the world's people are still very far from the point of diminishing returns from consumption. Tell the 100 million young mothers in China and India, for example, that disposable diapers are a luxury that will lead to "derangement". They'll look at you like you have two heads.

Classic limosine liberalism in disguise.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:43 | 3548220 insanelysane
insanelysane's picture

I believe I saw something yesterday that said that Chairman Mao's granddaughter has $800million.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:03 | 3548582 BooMushroom
BooMushroom's picture

There has to be a happy medium between not being able to afford disposable diapers, and not being willing to sew a button back on. Hard to calibrate the blunt object of government towards anything but extremes.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:33 | 3548183 kito
kito's picture

Degrowth...or prosperity without an extractionist, debt fueled growth mentality....will occur only after the world resets....the world will need a huge kick in the ass to wake up and learn Einstein's definition of insanity........

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:34 | 3548191 fonzannoon
fonzannoon's picture

Remember that seinfeld episode when Elaine hangs out with the gang that resembles Jerry, George and Kramer?

Except they were completely different personalities?

I just pulled this off another investing website. This comment shows exactly how opposite things are sometimes.

"I rarely watch CNBC,but if I do I mute the tv when Santelli comes on. What value he brings to the show is unknown. Except a lot of people hate him so maybe it helps their ratings. After all,CNBC exists to sell advertising"

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:41 | 3548215 insanelysane
insanelysane's picture

LMAO

After talking with coworkers I have to remind myself that I am not the crazy one.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:05 | 3548589 BooMushroom
BooMushroom's picture

Exercise left to the reader: how do you know what value Santelli brings to the channel, if you mute it every time he speaks?

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:35 | 3548193 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

"Live simply so others can simply live."

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without."

These are not hippy slogans or progressive values but those of frugal hard working normal folks who recognize that waste has a cost.

They are anathema to MBA's, the Corporatocracy, the Crony Capitalist, and government mandarins.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:40 | 3548210 kito
kito's picture

Amen ebworthen......

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:45 | 3548225 Doubleguns
Doubleguns's picture

I would add to that "learn self sufficiency". Spend your money in that direction where ever you can and if your resources do not allow it move as far in that direction as possible. 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:07 | 3548337 McMolotov
McMolotov's picture

I'd add "make your own shit." People go through furniture like crazy, and it makes no sense to me. You're a lot more likely to keep something for years if you've made it yourself.

It's not as difficult as it seems, either. This nice lady posts free plans that anyone can follow, and you don't need all that expensive shit Norm Abrams has in his workshop:

http://ana-white.com/

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:54 | 3548538 Acet
Acet's picture

Also "fix your own shit".

I've recently moved to a new place and just started fixing all those little things that needed fixing, learning as I went along. Things like faulty light switches or a broken kitchen exhaust cap.

How the previous people living here could stand the state of the place and all those little nags is beyond me.

 

I live in the middle of the city and it's amazing just how overall inept with the simplest of things most people around here are.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:59 | 3548563 Sean7k
Sean7k's picture

There are much better plans and ideas. If you want to build good furniture, you need good tools. They can be power or manual, but you need them all the same. No one wants their furniture to be "picnic style" or the old torch the soft wood look.

There was nothing besides the bed, I would ever recommend. 

I am a finish carpenter by trade and I do make my own furniture. I have wayyyyy more tools than I need, but that is for production capabilities. Still, a table saw, a chop saw, router,sanders and lots of clamps will give you basic furniture that you can be proud of. Wood is expensive, why throw it away on something you're going to trash in two years?

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 13:57 | 3549027 McMolotov
McMolotov's picture

I respect your opinion as a professional, but how much did you actually look through that site? I did a simple search for "table," and there are probably at least 30 different plans. I doubt you looked at everything. I suppose some of it looks like it could be in a park or campground, but most of it doesn't, and most will last well beyond two years.

Any time someone suggests do-it-yourself stuff — whether it's home improvement, car repair, computer-related, financial planning, etc. — folks who are employed in those particular areas either take it as a slight against their abilities or feel threatened. I have no doubt you make really nice furniture. I need a bed and I'd love to be able to afford to have you build one for me. The fact is most people lack the money to purchase custom furniture or the expensive tools necessary to make their own high-quality furniture. They also lack the skill and training required to make something on their own that rivals the quality of custom furniture.

I'll likely end up making a bed myself, and it obviously won't meet the standards of Norm, but it will more importantly meet my own standards: it'll be my own style, it'll last a decent amount of time, it won't be made by Chinese slave children, and it won't blow my budget.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 22:06 | 3550577 Sean7k
Sean7k's picture

You sound a little threatened. There are better plans and magazines that offer well detailed instructions. Your work will reflect your level of skill, but you seem quite content with that. If I might make a suggestion: find furniture at auctions and garage sales. If it has good bones, you can easily clean it up with sanding and refinishing- few tools, lots of elbow grease and in the end- it will reflect your style.

More important, it was probably be built by someone with a lot of tools and experience, meaning it will last and the cost will be minimal. Norm Abrams is a little unrealistic for  everyone to emulate. Look for solid wood pieces with light stains- it will be easier to cover. Watch out for oil stains, they must be primed, sealed and painted. There are excellwnt resources for refinishing.

Good luck and give a used piece of furniture a new home.

 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 15:15 | 3549317 Blankenstein
Blankenstein's picture

Or pay for high quality, classic styles that you keep forever.  That is how my mom did it, and we still have the furniture decades later.  However, this isn't as easy anymore, as most of the American furniture companies were bought up and manufacturing moved to China resulting in much lower quality.  If you search, there are still a few companies who manufacture their goods in the US and are high quality.  People think nothing of spending lots of dough on ishit that lasts a few years, but won't  spend a little more on something they can keep for decades.  

Sat, 05/11/2013 - 09:31 | 3551193 Tinky
Tinky's picture

I have three pieces from Pompanoosuc Mills in Vermont, and there is no reason that they won't last for another 50 years in fine shape. Prices have gone up, but excellent quality.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:20 | 3548398 Creepy Lurker
Creepy Lurker's picture

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without."

That one, I learned from my Grandma, who was most definitely not a hippie. She raised 4 kids and a shed full of meat rabbits through the depression and the war in London. I leaned so much from her, and still sometimes I think I barely scratched the surface.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:28 | 3548437 Element
Element's picture

I for one have never understood why they put chocolate coated mints on the bedspread in my hotel rooms.

I am quite prepared to forego such ostentatious excess.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:34 | 3548464 Ms. Erable
Ms. Erable's picture

And they provide far less entertainment value than a 24-year-old hooker and a gram of blow. Hoteliers, take note!

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:09 | 3548604 BooMushroom
BooMushroom's picture

"Do without." Oh ye Gods, if only people could learn this. Our lives are so cluttered.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:40 | 3548212 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Arrest the Walmart heirs and re-distribute their stolen wealth. Put Prince Charles into the Tower of London. Arrest the banksters and re-distribute their stolen wealth. Then come talk to me about de-plan. I say replace national governments with open source software. Use BitCoin as a world currency (I am). 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:51 | 3548250 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

What are you trying to do? Replace a budding neo-Feudalism with democracy? Good grief!

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:41 | 3548214 Decimus Lunius ...
Decimus Lunius Luvenalis's picture

Sounds reasonable, but why will the farmer provide the urban populations with food when they have no currency and their goods to used to barter consist of warn-out trinkets? Whether right or wrong in a philosophical sense, degrowth is devolution, and unless there is significant depopulation, radical de-urbanization and re-ruralization concomitant with the rise of artisan or low-tech/low-volume manufacturing, there is going to be tremendous excess societal fat. I seriously doubt those that actually produce the necessary consumption products will be happy to labor in order to subsidize somebody else's writing of that book or study of whatever or socializing at the village square.  The concept of degrowth is merely a rebranding of every Socialist or Communist fantasy. 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:01 | 3548313 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

Key word you used: "significant depopulation".

If it isn't planned (as many advocate), it may be inevitable anyway. But hopefully this occurs before mankind has 'depopulated' the rest of the planet, which experiencing a mass-extinction event -- thanks to the advice of our 'sacred' texts, which want us to multiply and take over everything.

Stupid people, stupid gods. If these 'gods' ever return, we should "kick their ass".

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:06 | 3548339 Waffen
Waffen's picture

No, you are on point. What farmer would toll to support a neomarxist in a Che shirt drinking coffee in New York? The answer he wouldn't.

The cities are drains on the few of us that actually stil make things in America. Might as well cordone them off for a couple of years and let them sink or swim on their own.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:46 | 3548520 Jim in MN
Jim in MN's picture

That's funny, I just watched 'Escape From New York' last night start to finish without commercials.  Really much better that way (and the hockey was depressing anyhow so I couldn't watch that).

You best be down with Isaac Hayes...the Duke....he's A-Number-1.

Fun fact:  'Escape From New York' needed a set that looked like a destroyed city on a shoestring budget.  The solution: East St. Louis.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:36 | 3548727 Element
Element's picture

Their doing "Terminator 6 The Aftermath" in Detroit.

Sat, 05/11/2013 - 08:11 | 3551109 drdolittle
drdolittle's picture

OMG E st louis.

I made a wrong turn and ended up in esl. Within 100 yards there was a pothole bigger than my car.

Spooky place there

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:42 | 3548217 eaglerock
eaglerock's picture

Love the sentiment Charles, but time to retire the 'Cargo Cult' cliche.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:15 | 3548370 Quinvarius
Quinvarius's picture

Especially since so many Cargo Cultists are drone striked for suspicious activity when they practice their landing rituals.  It is time to call it a "Payload Cult".  This is a more applicable cliche to central banking.  "Please oh great one!  Send me 2000 lbs of the good stuff!"

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:45 | 3548224 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

Sounds like a 'rebranding' of Minimalism, which is as old as mankind itself. The irony is that Minimalism gets rediscovered, and the fact that this 'rebranding' is itself a form of Consumerism.

The irony, it burns!

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 10:53 | 3548261 Melin
Melin's picture

I love the stench of the communist creed in the morning.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:08 | 3548341 Son of Loki
Son of Loki's picture

Retail is dying on the vine...even housing in my area is dead....nothign moving.....at least last year malls had some warm bodies walking around and a couple of houses that were reduced 20% or so were sold..this year....nada.

 

Anybody get that $3,000 bucks Barry promised everyone for those 'Thingamajigs.?'

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:09 | 3548355 Quinvarius
Quinvarius's picture

But whatever you do, don't put money in your savings account.  That is high treason to Keynesians.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:14 | 3548375 Peterus
Peterus's picture

Even in antiquity people were "embracing degrowth", by leaving all they had and going to live like hermits. Were there some real limits there? Are there now, or is it just justification to the same sentiment?

Anyway, talking about human societies can't just slide around the State. We are not free to opt out of this. We were educated in public shool or "private" one that had to fallow official curriculum. Than we are getting most of the information from MSM on the face private, but under indirect control. If the avalanche of advertisements pushes people into consumerism what kind of total dependencies did that leave inside us? How can any significant economic transformation be done in a society where State spends 40-60% of GDP and has huge influence on the private part with myriad regulations. Whatever will be done will either by a change it State's tyranny (maybe it will tell us to embrace degrowth as poverty strikes back with a vengance) or by dimnishing the size of this tyranny. Change in people's preferences, with influence of schools and MSM left in place and with law and public spanding in place - will be a pitiful differece. Maybe women will stop buying dresses for one occasion, but almost all of the resources used up now, will be used up again.

BTW Resources are almost not finite. It is all arrangement of matter, which can be manipulated, plus energy. As long as the Sun shines and humanities mastery of transforming matter and harnessing energy progresses - we have as much resources as we want to work to aquire (naturally, after discuounting some part of these gains towards robbers and thieves) .

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:16 | 3548378 Element
Element's picture

Ok, ok, I'm not going to buy that second jet. It was going to cost $780 per hour for fuel anyway.

The upside is I can build a new hanger for the old one and maintain it better for longer. It cost $300k for a 3,500 hr TBO overhaul though.

Doing my bit for a simpler life.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:17 | 3548380 Peterus
Peterus's picture

Highly militarized police might soon come knocking to the US people and convince them to "embrace degrowth" and "care for mother Earth".

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:23 | 3548411 Seize Mars
Seize Mars's picture

I like the blogger. But any time someone uses the word "peak" my bullshit detector goes off. There is no peak anything. Or put another way, once you start learning about actual economics (I.e. Austrian) you start to understand that the remedy for scarcity is a real price discovery mechanism. In other words a real market. Scarce oil would produce soaring costs which would encourage alternatives which would become profitable et cetera. Right now people are incentivized to consume like fucking pigs. This will lead to unexpected scarcity. We need freedom. It's green.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:32 | 3548450 Element
Element's picture

Peak old age?

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:35 | 3548470 the grateful un...
the grateful unemployed's picture

follow our social history from the 1960's (anti-materialism) to today (full blown 7/24 umbilical xbox life support devices) to appreciate why human thought (consciousness) as a means of understanding and avoiding the  numbing effects of technology has been a complete failure. political action is entirely worthless. a grassroots movement against the war in Vietnam accomplished what? nothing. the war ended when it had run its course. the majority may be right, but nobody is listening. obama says change change, and he changes nothing. it's not the fault of the individual, but you have to wonder what sort of sociopathic defenses are necessary.

to survive as a politician you have to be able to win the debate of the meaning of the word "is".. what the big thinkers miss is the trojan horse that new technology contains. the global economy has been destroying the profit margins for twenty years. Walmart is the peoples store, (like the GUM in Moscow?) but a lot better. you get everything you need at the lowest prices. who knew capitalism was sowing the seeds of its own destruction?

sure you can go live in a hippie commune, but they dont' care, they don't need a majority of able bodied people to show up for work every day, and help set the labor pricing mechanism lower (see fruit pickers Grapes of Wrath)  all they need is consumers to consume, and government to provide money to consumer (food stamps, section 8, etc) which is debt that Fed then monetizes. its a virtuous cycle unless for some reason you are too proud, or self possessed and you want to live in a commune. they can run the economy on 80% consumer participation, or 60% or even 10% if the people are really rich and buy a lot of stuff. nothing we do or buy makes any difference, so do what works for you.

 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:38 | 3548480 smacker
smacker's picture

 

OK. I agree with much of that stuff, not least because I learned the habits of not being a mindless consumer many years ago.

I have described myself as "a salesman's nightmare" for years because I only ever buy what I really need/want to improve my well being or efficiency of my lifestyle activities. A good way to do that is never leave home with much money in the pocket as this avoids buying junk on impulse, like so many others seem to do.

However, once this model of life becomes mainstream at it is with "Degrowth", I need to see what their agenda is.

Do they propose higher prices or taxes to discourage spending on consumer junk? or perhaps new sets of regulations? etc etc. Close scrutiny of their policy agenda *may* reveal them to be little more than yet another closet 'progressive socialist' movement, stuffed full of people wanting to manipulate society to turn it into something they want. At which point I will switch off.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:45 | 3548514 Professorlocknload
Professorlocknload's picture

smack, an old Dust Bowl Okie friend told me decades ago, "The best way to save money is don't spend it."

(On "progressives" and socialists, my comment was submitted before I even read yours. Like minds!)

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:09 | 3548611 smacker
smacker's picture

Indeed ;-)

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:38 | 3548481 Professorlocknload
Professorlocknload's picture

That old song is back? "Progressive" Socialism?

We all must sacrifice because we are running out of other peoples money again? 

Ho-kay, what ever.

This just isn't going to get better until the Luddites capitulate and get the hell out of the way, taking their Nanny Statists with 'em.

Permitting creative destruction seems to me to be the only avenue to evolution through this mess, not "devolution" of market processes through massive bureaucratic ass covering and redistribution of what little real wealth remains to FOG. (Friends Of Government)

Guess the best one can do for society is look out for number one so they won't need to, maybe?

 

 

 

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 11:51 | 3548530 InconvenientCou...
InconvenientCounterParty's picture

This used to be called Marxism. Although the new nomenclature is appealing, coporations will still root this out and destroy it by all available means. Any collective use of resources will be zealously attacked by selfish actors.

The champions of personal liberty will sleep well and the decimated population will yeild enough labor to feed the machines. The irony of this arrangement is essentially a battery charger but there is significant engergy there, short a circuit occur. Might the population wake up and realize the strain of liberty they are being sold is an illusion?

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 12:14 | 3548636 the grateful un...
the grateful unemployed's picture

when did feudalism end? the people living outside the castle no longer felt threatened? then one day the king said, damn, i am sitting here alone in my mcmansion, and the whole world is passing me by

the people living outside the castle gave up a measure of their security for autonomy and the freedom to form new relationships (something psychologists are always telling us) national borders are like the old fiefdoms, consider the US and Mexico, really not much separting the two cultures or countries. just a trillion dollar hi tech fence.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 14:40 | 3549213 FreeNewEnergy
FreeNewEnergy's picture

Start by reading anything by Gene Logsdon, aka, the Contrary Farmer.

I did, and his books changed my life... for the better. And it keeps getting better.

I recommend his blog: http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/category/gene-logsdon-blog/

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 15:44 | 3549421 malek
malek's picture

Formerly called "quality over quantity"

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 16:03 | 3549470 falak pema
falak pema's picture

you'd think there is some sense left in that great world of uber hubris head up ass land of "more is great" called the US...to understand simple things that are now becoming evident even to dystopian minds fed on hegemonial paranoia and "bogeyman" simplification. 

As Gandhi so aptly said; i'd die to fight human predatory imperialism but I won't kill for the same reasons.

What better epitaph to hang on past hopes of deconstructionist, anti imperialist eco-friendly "small is beautiful" humanism.

In the face of current juggernaut oligarchy runaway overconsumerism. 

We will learn the hard way.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 17:11 | 3549670 orez65
orez65's picture

"... recognizes that the mindless expansion of mindless consumption fueled by credit and financialization is qualitatively and quantitatively different from positive growth ..."

In a few words: just stop the fiat money and fractional reserve banking FRAUDS.

Market place interest rates take care of allocating capital.

No need for central banks nor the Government to get involved.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!