Life in the Rear-view Mirror

Recapitulation

I dedicate this chapter to the memory of a person I've never met, but which I would have been honoured to meet. I have a feeling that she shared some, if not many, of my concerns. Thanks to her granddaughter Kathy I have learned about a kindred soul that has preceded me.

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In the next chapter I introduce a new theme – population explosion – and in subsequent ones I will delve into how we have reached the point where the world’s population is becoming the biggest issue of the twenty-first century, far surpassing climate change, which has become the hottest topic. Before moving on, however, it’s appropriate to recap the previous chapters. I have touched on many things thus far and here I want to tie them together and put them into sharper focus.

The last fifty years were a remarkable time to be living on earth. Technology changed every aspect of our life including our bodies. It changed how we do things in the house and out, how we communicate, how we work, and how we live. The self-elevating crane gave us high-rise buildings, changing even the places were we work and live. These glass and steel towers are not the healthiest places to live and work, not only because people breathe the same recycled air that carries viruses and bacteria, but because they take us one step farther removed from our natural habitat. The human body was made to live in natural jungles, not the artificial ones made of steel and glass. Clearly, nobody wants to go back to the jungle, but big cities are exacting a heavy toll.

The technology revolution came fast and furious, and non stop. It made life easier, more comfortable, and more hectic. Technology allowed us to do more things, so we were always rushing from one thing to another. It also turned us into big consumers of the earth’s natural resources, and big producers of waste and pollution. Technology has been a double-edged sword. However, technology was not the only driver of overconsumption. The technology pull was supplemented by the advertising push.

Advertising itself changed over the years, to become more focused on people’s psychological weaknesses and fears, in order to sell products that they neither needed nor wanted. But heir methods were very effective and most people succumbed to the subliminal messages. Advertising itself became big business, with the resources to study and develop the messages that elicit the buy response from most people. The message is always tailored to the specific product, but the essence is about lifestyle. If one is not part of the in-group of the day, whatever that may be, then one’s missing out; and nobody wants to miss out or be a loser.

The financial industry and Government helped big business by providing tons of easy credit allowing people to buy things that they didn’t need, nor wanted, with money that they didn’t have, and in some cases couldn’t repay. Without easy credit, the advertising push would not have been as effective. And without government willingness to change regulations to allow easy credit, both the financial industry and big business would have reaped meagre profits. But that’s not the only area where government was a willing partner to promote faster economic growth, which unfortunately also meant faster consumption of precious resources, without due consideration of the effects on future generations and Mother Earth.

The repudiation of trade tariffs that protected domestic jobs from international competition was another area, where governments plunged head first, without properly assessing its impacts. The signing of the World Trade Agreement allowed North American jobs to be exported to China, and Chinese goods to be imported in return. Because of the vastly cheaper Chinese labour force, goods were imported at much lower prices than the domestic counterparts; and this was the last consumerism spurt. An expanding workforce and the entry of married women into it increased the country’s disposable income and family income for those with two wage earners, where only one was there before. This created the first big spurt in consumption. The second one was from the introduction of easy credit.

Thank you Government for your role in stimulating overconsumption! Thanks for having been a willing partner in the mindless exploitation of our natural resources; and thank you for having turned a blind eye to those polluting our biosphere, to the point that our health is being adversely affected! Of course, we need take some credit for the deplorable mess we find ourselves in, for not holding you accountable for your actions: meā culpā, meā culpā, meā maximā culpā!

There are many more things for which we failed to hold governments accountable, but they will be discussed in future chapters.