It Strikes Me Funny: TUMs please - My stomach can’t handle conventional wisdom

Our political and corporate leaders may appear wise at times, but only in a conventional sort of way.

And their conventional wisdom will not produce a sustainable economy, environment or personal level of satisfaction.

Ouch. Pass the TUMs, please.

Leaders want constant economic growth because they benefit from the upside of that growth, e.g. at the polls, in the stores.

“Growth creates the new industries and generates new jobs needed to absorb technologically displaced workers [e.g. workers displaced in car factories by robots]. The American economy, for example, must expand 3 to 5 per cent annually - doubling in size every fifteen to twenty-five years - just to keep unemployment from rising.” (T. Homer-Dixon, The Upside of Down)

Benefits: jobs, more tax payers, more goods on shelves, more profit

There are, however, many downsides.

“And to get this constant growth, our leaders and corporations - operating on the implicit assumption that people can be inculcated with insatiable desires and ever-rising expectations - relentlessly encourage us to be hyper-consumers.”


["Always shopping"]

“With our willing and often eager acquiescence, merchants, credit card companies, and banks barrage us with advertising (often showing how we’re falling behind our neighbour, Mr. Jones), while our economic policy makers ply us with economic incentives - like low interest rates and tax cuts - all to get us to borrow and buy with abandon.” (ibid)

Ouch. My stomach can only handle so much conventional wisdom and consumption.

More TUMs, please.

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How do we get off the hyper-consumer treadmill?

[Click here to read about one way to my heart and stomach]

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