{"id":29012,"date":"2017-12-20T07:30:01","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T12:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=29012"},"modified":"2017-12-20T07:30:01","modified_gmt":"2017-12-20T12:30:01","slug":"un-merry-christmas-the-perverse-incentives-to-over-consume-and-over-spend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=29012","title":{"rendered":"Un-Merry Christmas: The Perverse Incentives to Over-Consume and Over-Spend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Un-Merry Christmas: The Perverse Incentives to Over-Consume and Over-Spend<\/a><\/h3>\n

Isn’t it obvious that if we set out to design the most perverse, toxic and doomed system possible, we’d end up with the Keynesian Cargo Cult’s insane permanent growth\/Landfill Economy?<\/i><\/p>\n

Few topics are off-limits nowadays:<\/b> the personal and private are now splashed everywhere for all to see.<\/p>\n

One topic is still taboo: the holiday’s perverse incentives to over-consume and over-spend,lest our economy implode.<\/b> This topic is taboo because it strikes at the very heart of our socio-economic system, which is fundamentally based on permanent growth, the faster the better<\/i>, as if unlimited expansion on a finite planet is not just possible, but desirable.<\/i><\/p>\n

In the current Mode of Production, the solution to every social and economic ill is to “grow our way out of it.”<\/p>\n

The solution to unemployment: jump-start growth by expanding consumption, spending and borrowing.<\/p>\n

The solution to stagnant wages: jump-start growth.<\/p>\n

The solution to declining profits: jump-start growth.<\/p>\n

The solution to government deficit spending: jump-start growth.<\/p>\n

And so on.<\/p>\n

So what happens when most people have not just the basics of life, but a surplus of stuff?<\/b> Where is the growth going to come from if people already have everything?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The answer is three-fold:<\/b><\/p>\n

1. Replace a perfectly good product with a new product and dump the old one in the landfill.<\/p>\n

2. Buy duplicates and put the surplus products in the closet or storage facility.<\/p>\n

3. Buy gimmicks (Pet Rocks, etc.) that are tossed in the dump shortly after the holiday gift-giving season ends.<\/p>\n

But does this Landfill Economy<\/i> make sense?<\/b><\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Un-Merry Christmas: The Perverse Incentives to Over-Consume and Over-Spend Isn’t it obvious that if we set out to design the most perverse, toxic and doomed system possible, we’d end up with the Keynesian Cargo Cult’s insane permanent growth\/Landfill Economy? Few topics are off-limits nowadays: the personal and private are now splashed everywhere for all to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[127,14633,161,240,391,587],"class_list":["post-29012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-charles-hugh-smith","tag-christmas","tag-consumerism","tag-economic-growth","tag-growth","tag-of-two-minds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29013,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29012\/revisions\/29013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}