The US GDP is based upon "consumption". It is time, well past time for

[Diamond Dave]

all of us to stop the "consumption". Maybe then those "inside the Beltway" will get a clue. We can only hope.

The US GDP is being driven by "consumption".

Is anyone getting this? Our service economy is in the toilet.

[undergroundpanther]

1. Consumption once was a word for a wasting disease

Funny how words end up meaning the same thing despite different surface definitions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Roy Porter has written, the seventeenth-century victims of ‘consumption’ – the wasting disease – were often guilty of the unrestrained enjoyment of too many pleasures. (2) ‘Just as, in the kingdom, wealth easily mutated into waste,’ Porter wrote:
So in the individual, excessive consumption could … paradoxically, produce not strength but physical dissolution … over-energetic feasting, toasting and ‘sporting in the Garden of Venus’ were identified as prime causes of ‘wasting diseases’, resulting in premature enfeeblement and … the ‘withering away of the whole body’, down to a mere anatomy. (3)

What marks contemporary life as unique, by contrast, are our ‘techniques’ of consumption, which is to say the development of means for detaching the worthless past.The core enigma of life-as-consumption is found in the impossibility of conceiving of a self that could remain burdened by the objects, memories, or impressions of past experience. In fact, the fate of the one who cannot forget is strangely akin to the one who feasts too much.

In a story by Jorge Luis Borges titled ‘Funes, His Memory,’ a young man awakes one day to find that he is now some kind of sensory sponge, able to absorb all that goes on around him without discrimination, and without the ability to filter or switch off the continual flow of immediate experience. ‘He was,’ Borges writes, ‘the solitary, lucid spectator of a multiform, momentaneous and almost unbelievably precise world … he had more memories than all of mankind since the world began.’ ‘My memory,’ Funes himself says at one point, ‘is like a garbage heap.’ (4) Unable to forget, or dispose of the world that assaulted him with all the force of its minute detail, Funes would have found contemporary life a cruel prospect that promised only the tortures of some Baroque Hell. The example of Funes tells us is that to live in a cluttered present we need to forget. Perhaps we are too apt to overlook the way in which this ‘technique’ of consumption brings the present into order, and to likewise remain blind to the wastes we manage to displace to the hidden corners of contemporary existence. The fact is that we avoid becoming like a garbage heap by becoming a garbage disposal.

The fate of Funes is a warning as to what might await us should our means of forgetting, of disposing, fail. Overcome with a present full of the past he dies of pulmonary congestion, which is to say, consumption. He consumed too much of the world.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/perspective/stories/s1571526.htm

[ConsAreLiars]

2. A few score years ago "consumption" was the word for a deadly disease

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/mdd/v05/i02/html/02timeline.html

Although the primary meaning of the word is no longer TB, it is still as malignant.

(edit out stray keypress)

[Diamond Dave]

3. Thank you both. Consumption is a "deadly" disease. n/t

[rwenos]

4. So How????

How does one stop consuming? I use a computer to communicate and do my job, thus consuming electricity, computer equipment, espresso, paper, laser toner, my eyeglasses. I drive to work, thus consuming automobile parts and lubricants, gasoline, asphalt, electricity (for traffic lights). I get to work and talk on my cellular telephone, thus consuming more electricity, cellular telephone equipment, and telephone services. I drive home, eat dinner, surf the Net, consuming all the while.

I've got a family to support. The family consumes pharmaceuticals, housing, food, energy for heating, gasoline, piano teacher services, public school services, books.

Got the idea? How do I "stop consuming"?!

Your premise is unrealistic. Are you perchance an economist by education and/or training?

[lisainmilo]

5. Too funny but I think you misunderstood....

:rofl:


4. Pathology. a. Older Use. tuberculosis of the lungs.
b. progressive wasting of the body.

[rwenos]

6. I reckon

My mother had TB in the 1950's, eventually having part of a lung removed. I didn't think the TB angle was very funny. Guess if TB touches your life it loses its comedic dimension.

[ConsAreLiars]

8. In one post you defend mass consumerism as way of "life"

(or death, if you look more closely at what you are buying, not that you would) and in the next you pose as offended by the TB analogy. Do you see anything wrong with that sort of self-contradictory nonsense? Well, of course not. You can't. Take off the ideological blinders and look at the amount of trash you put out each week or stuff into storage.

[rwenos]

16. No Defense of Consumerism

I would not defend consumerism. It's a pain in the ass. My point was that it is impossible to lead an urban or sub-urban life and NOT consume. We're stuck. We consume. How many of us -- REALLY -- would trade the iPod, cell phone, laptop, espresso machine, CD-player, and all the joys and challenges of living in a big city, for living "off the grid"?

My first post posed a rhetorical question: Isn't it a little unrealistic to rail at consumerism, when we all do it, and nearly all of us would be loathe to give it up?

[undergroundpanther]

19. It has an addictive quality

Because other things in our lives are missing.Or we are escaping, or other reasons.Find your reason..
I found when my social life picked up I am online ALOT less.
When I am surrounded by my freinds and we are talking and laughing well into the night,I am not using any gadgets, no ipod, no tv or anything else..we are sitting and enjoying each other's company. And that consumes nothing but time and thoughts.Consuming for some I think fills in a hole inside where our kin ties and community/tribe should be.

[undergroundpanther]

10. It wasen't meant to be funny

It is a literal comparison.Consumption literally meant a wasting disease like TB or cancer. The disease consumed you.

This consumer culture is unsustainable it is killing it's hosts like a disease does.The greed and corporate culture that urges us to consume so extravagantly has caused us to become sick,the Earth is poisoned by the wastes of over production so a few wealthy people can dominate the world..And we may very well die by this consumption.

I am sorry for what your mom went through,sounds horrible. If it is any consolation my grandfather was killed by TB.

[Diamond Dave]

7. Just wait till your dollars are not worth much and then you figure out

where, just where you might stop consuming. What if you want to consume and what you want to consume just is not there.

Try spaghetti for Christmas, no turkey, no family, no travel, no gas./ No dollars for pharmaceuticals, no dollars for housing, or for heating, much less piano teacher services, public school services and books and such.. much less dollars to spend for gifts for the kids.

Get the IDEA?

There is an idea for not consuming. My premise is not unrealistic, yours might be. Think it can't happen to you? Think again.

[rwenos]

18. Still Unrealistic

My wife and kid both take pharmaceuticals to sustain life in the face of chronic illnesses. I take pharmaceuticals to deal with pollution, allergies, etc. I work to pay the rent. I live in Southern California, so I have no way to work without driving. I cannot afford to rent or buy enough land to grow enough food to sustain myself.

From the examples I have given, it should be clear that it's impossible not to buy stuff. That much should be self-evident. When one buys stuff, one consumes. Thus, the premise that one can stop consuming is unrealistic. It's impossible.

[undergroundpanther]

9. You can't stop consuming

But you can stop being an extravagant consumer. Consumers have been manipulated into being extravagant consumers to keep capitalism alive,so the haves can keep their over extravagant lifestyles..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wealth or money must be able to purchase labor power. But as long as people have access to the means of production — land, raw materials, tools (e.g. weaving looms, mills) — there is no reason for them to sell their labor. They can still sell the product of their labor. For the capitalistic mode of production to exist, the tie between producers and the means of production must be cut; peasants must lose control of their land, artisans control of their tools. These people once denied access to the means of production must negotiate with those who control the means of production for permission to use the land and tools and receive a wage in return. Those who control the means of production also control the goods that are produced, and so those who labor to produce them must buy them back from those with the means of production. Thus the severing of the persons from the means of production turns them not only into laborers, but into consumers of the product of their labor as well. — Richard Robbins, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, (Allyn and Bacon, 1999), pp. 88 - 89

In his book, Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism (Allyn and Bacon, 1999), Richard Robins describes that for the rise of consumerism in the United States to occur, buying habits had to be transformed and luxuries had to be made into necessities. He describes numerous ways in which this was accomplished (pp. 14 - 24): A major transformation in the meaning of goods and how they were presented and displayed. This included:
The evolution of the department store into a place to display goods as objects in themselves. Orchestras, piano players, flower arrangements, and so on would be used to “present goods in a way that inspired people to buy them. The department store became a cultural primer telling people how they should dress, furnish their homes, and spend their leisure time.” (p. 15, emphasis added)
Advertising was another “revolutionary development” to influence the creation of the consumer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Poverty, land control and ownership, pollution and so on, are largely parts of economic and ideological systems too. As exemplified by the Lawrence Summers quote above, a “value” is placed on the environment, on life, on different cultures and so on.

This is so ingrained into the cultures of the wealthy nations, that the thought of massive adjustment of lifestyles and economic systems to a more sustainable consumption seems too much to consider. Instead the system is continued and maintained. As mentioned earlier, built into the system itself are mechanisms that encourage this, without realizing the costs.

http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Consumption/Effects.asp
http://www.thismagazine.ca/issues/2002/11/rebelsell.php
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Consumption/Rise.asp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Help? Possible answers?
http://ranprieur.com/essays/dropout.html
http://ranprieur.com/essays/dropoutcrit.html
http://ranprieur.com/crash.html

[Diamond Dave]

11. Here is how, dear one.

http://www.fsm-a.org/stacks/mario/mario_speech.html

from his obit:

n the 1960s, Savio, a fiery, inspiring orator whose father was a machine punch operator, was an adversary of Clark Kerr, the University of California president, who referred to the university as a factory and dismissed the Free Speech Movement as "a ritual of hackneyed complaints."

Savio is remembered for the words he spoke on Dec. 2, 1964, from Sproul Plaza in front of Berkeley's main administration building, to a large crowd of protesters, many of whom took part in a sit-in inside the building and a campus strike.

"There is a time," he said, "when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."

The police arrested 800 of the protesters in what was the largest mass arrest in California history.

THERE IS A TIME WHEN THE OPERATION OF THE MACHINE BECOMES SO ODIOUS, MAKES YOU SO SICK AT HEART, THAT YOU CAN'T TAKE PART, and YOU'VE GOT TO PUT YOUR BODIES UPON THE GEARS AND WHEELS, UPON THE LEVERS, UPON ALL THE APPARATUS..................................

is anyone at all listening, where are all the g' d' f'ing boomers I grew up with? Out in space... out in suburbia, havin a fine time and well who just really gives a shit///////'/

Savio is remembered for the words he spoke on Dec. 2, 1964, from Sproul Plaza in front of Berkeley's main administration building, to a large crowd of protesters, many of whom took part in a sit-in inside the building and a campus strike.

"There is a time," he said, "when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."

The police arrested 800 of the protesters in what was the largest mass arrest in California history.

The sit-in was the climax of three months of student disorders in reaction to the university's decision to limit the activities of civil rights and political groups on the campus. Students contended that the restrictions abridged their constitutional rights. Savio became a member of the executive committee of the Free Speech Movement, an organization representing a score of civil rights and political groups at Berkeley.

At a news conference after the Dec. 2 action, Savio said it had been the most successful student strike in American history, with only 17 percent or 18 percent of the students attending classes.

After a demonstration two months earlier, Savio was accused of biting a police officer's left thigh, "breaking the skin and causing bruises." A fellow demonstrator, now known as Laura X, who heads the Women's History Library in Berkeley, said Savio loved to tell people that he had apologized afterward to the officer because, as he put it, they were "both working-class kids."

Explaining why he had risked expulsion for agitating on campus in 1964, Savio cited the time he spent working for civil rights causes in the South earlier that year: "I spent the summer in Mississippi. I witnessed tyranny. I saw groups of men in the minority working their wills over the majority. Then I came back here and found the university preventing us from collecting money for use there and even stopping us from getting people to go to Mississippi to help."

Through a change in rules, the university tried to limit the use of the campus for political activities and the recruiting of students for off-campus demonstrations.

When students protested, Kerr and other Berkeley administrators suggested that they were rabble-rousers who were dominated by Communists. But the protesters ranged from a variety of socialists to Goldwater Republicans.

The Free Speech movement that Savio gave voice to became a model for protests. The events of 1964 in Berkeley ushered in a decade of student agitation across the country, culminating in the wide protests against the war in Vietnam.

Here is more....... I hope someone here starts to care.

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/savio-obit.html

[undergroundpanther]

12. You are correct

But one body on one gear is not enough to stop this massive machine you need to organize numbers of people willing to risk acting together in solidarity.
One thing this individualized, atomized, domineering , consumer,culture has done to humanity is it interfered with our real life solidarity.And this culture has dis-empowered us all by stealth.
The net helps with networking, but at the same time it prevents organized action on that solidarity in the real world.

[Diamond Dave]

20. No argument there. We have devolved, we are desocialized, we are

too busy. We don't have any time to care anymore. American Idol step on in, Dancing with Stars, come on down.

Get it. We don't have any time left to care. We can't make it to any meetings about what our city government might be doing. Can you imagine if you told your boss you had to take the morning off to go to the City Council Meeting. You would be let go.

I hate to bring up Nader, but he has been pressing this all along. Our civic responsibility has been removed from us, we have allowed it to be taken away. Only when we stand up will we get it back.

The rest of the world is waiting for us.

[Diamond Dave]

17. I hope you get "it" soon, if not, well then so be it. Have fun.

I look for leaders that want to and wanted to make a difference in this world for our kids. What do you look for, rwenos? Apparently, not much.

[rwenos]

21. What I Look For and Live For

I look for a way to support my family, pay for my wife's medical bills, send my kid to college, read some good books, listen to some good music, watch college football, spend some time on vacation. I have a profession I love, a family I love, and a place to live I love.

My point (which for some reason you find obscure) is that everyone consumes, no one wants to stop, and it's a little unrealistic to premise an argument on the idea that any of us would be willing to give up our various creature comforts.

[Diamond Dave]

23. What "creature comforts" are you counting on your kids or grandkids to have?

If you care to some small degree, well you might be willing to give up on a few of your "comforts" for the sake of your generations following you.

Lead. Don't wait.

[Diamond Dave]

28. Here you go...............

http://www.fsm-a.org/stacks/mario/mario_speech.html

[NuttyFluffers]

13. to simplify, i'd use the word "Gluttony" and "Greed"

spendthrifts and misers occupied the same circle in Dante's Inferno, for they were in many ways one and the same. needless consumption and needless hoarding are not good attributes in a society. probably referring to getting off "the grid" by cutting back on excess purchases and a switch to self-sufficiency (or even local sufficiency). also by uncluttering your life by "spreading the wealth" of no longer needed or appreciated extra things that could be donated to charity. these things combat gluttony and greed. they also strangle the economy in some way. though might i encourage you to support local small stores instead if you have the opportunity?

after this there really should not be any confusion about what you are trying to say. unless someone doesn't understand the words gluttony and greed...

[undergroundpanther]

15. Free stores, We need more of them

http://www.supernaturale.com/articles.html?id=222

http://www.freestorebaltimore.org/

[NuttyFluffers]

24. craigslist and freecycle also help in this regard

:hi:

thanks for the links! *yoink* to the bookmarks with you!

[Occam Bandage]

14. I'll get right on that.

[SweetThingy]

22. Best way to deter a behaviour is to tax it

Do you support a consumption tax?

[Diamond Dave]

25. Are you not sweet, SweetThingy? No, I don't support a consumption Tax.

Nice of you to ask though. Going home soon?

[SweetThingy]

27. Good, you sounded like a repuke for a second there

[KT2000]

26. GDP includes illness too

The increase of goods and services when one becomes ill boosts the GDP.
How sick is that?