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Limiting personal consumption.
Human society as presently constructed is on a collision course with the fundamental laws of nature, specifically, the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics.
At a fundamental level, the biosphere of the planet is a closed, finite system with limits. Human society and all economic activity is a subset of this closed physical system on which we are wholly dependent.
And yet, our financial system, which governs the use of matter and energy, is open and does not recognize physical limits. In fact, money—through the agent of compound interest—must grow indefinitely.
This disconnect, between the physical reality of a closed system with fixed limits and the abstract reality of a money supply that requires continual expansion, is the problem.
The phenomenon of growth would normally imply eventual maturity. However, the financial system of the industrialized world cannot accommodate for any length of time anything less than continued economic expansion. Without roughly 2 – 3 % annual growth economic activity slows setting off a cascading chain of events that result in job losses, reduced consumer confidence, curtailed spending, then full on recession and depression.
Put another way, consumption is the engine of economic growth in the US; without it, the system collapses. While 150 years of growth has indeed transformed the planet, the present scale of consumption now presents an existential threat to our species and the entire biosphere.
We don’t have a model for a system in which a steady-state of economic activity does not lead to collapse. And without a model we can’t begin the process of designing the required transition.
Given the size and complexity of this issue and the absence of political leadership, I believe the responsibility for scaling back and reducing personal consumption falls to each of us. The personal is the political. To that end, I’ve committed to reducing our family’s ecological footprint and consumption habits to the extent possible.
The principle is simple: discretionary spending on new things must be limited to a replacement of existing things.
Its a first step.
At a fundamental level, the biosphere of the planet is a closed, finite system with limits. Human society and all economic activity is a subset of this closed physical system on which we are wholly dependent.
And yet, our financial system, which governs the use of matter and energy, is open and does not recognize physical limits. In fact, money—through the agent of compound interest—must grow indefinitely.
This disconnect, between the physical reality of a closed system with fixed limits and the abstract reality of a money supply that requires continual expansion, is the problem.
The phenomenon of growth would normally imply eventual maturity. However, the financial system of the industrialized world cannot accommodate for any length of time anything less than continued economic expansion. Without roughly 2 – 3 % annual growth economic activity slows setting off a cascading chain of events that result in job losses, reduced consumer confidence, curtailed spending, then full on recession and depression.
Put another way, consumption is the engine of economic growth in the US; without it, the system collapses. While 150 years of growth has indeed transformed the planet, the present scale of consumption now presents an existential threat to our species and the entire biosphere.
We don’t have a model for a system in which a steady-state of economic activity does not lead to collapse. And without a model we can’t begin the process of designing the required transition.
Given the size and complexity of this issue and the absence of political leadership, I believe the responsibility for scaling back and reducing personal consumption falls to each of us. The personal is the political. To that end, I’ve committed to reducing our family’s ecological footprint and consumption habits to the extent possible.
The principle is simple: discretionary spending on new things must be limited to a replacement of existing things.
Its a first step.