Week 8: Economic Alternatives to Endless Growth Consumption

This week's theme is how we may rethink how we measure success and happiness, and introduces the course's core concept of Plentitude. My seminar actually focused on the ideas introduced this week so naturally I'm a Week 8 master. Naturally.

Anyway, we ran out of time, and I ran out of time so I'll be reproducing some of the stuff we would have presented.

First we had to examine Gross National Happiness.com. Bhutan is a small South Asian state that is primarily Buddist. They developed the concept of GNH, believing that progress should also include non-economic aspects concerning well being. It’s purpose is to help the government determine the causes of unhappiness among their population so as to devise better policies. I really like the idea of using this sort of qualitative data for decision making and would like to see it implemented in other governments in the future. Here's a little diagram from the website showing the different elements that contribute to happiness.

I love this thing. This thing is great.

Also, I remember someone giving a presentation in class for their end of the year project which insinuated that once we all go back to nature, all our mental and emotional problems would be absolved. That's not so! Among many different classes of society, there are different reasons that may cause one to be unhappy! Unhappiness can't be solved with only one element, GNH revolves the concept of happiness being multidimensional.

Next was an article for The Sydney Morning Herald called A Palmy Balm for the Financial Crisis by Kirk Hoffman. The main thing we were supposed to get from this I'm assuming is that the value we place on money...is kind of arbitrary! It arose out of the formation of city states and larger urban centers, because using a form of currency with set values ended up being more efficient than the gift economy or barter when lots of people are involved. But with new technology, there appears to be some gift economy action making its way back into how we distribute goods. One example is peer to peer file sharing.

Market economy, don't be hatin'.

I've always thought the concept of interest was a little arbitrary, too. It's basically the implementation of the idea that "time is money" and money received today is preferred to money received in the future. They are tied to the country's economic situation and how the government would like the citizenry to act. By managing the interest rates, the government communicates whether cash money is more or less valuable in the current economic situation than money stored in savings accounts and other things.

Speaking of the gift economy, I ran out of time with my Plentitude end of the year presentation too...as evidenced by this blog, I talk and research too much...Anyway, my topic was pay-as-you-can cafes, which are restaurants in which you can trade volunteer and kitchen work for meals if you don't have enough money on you. It's based on gift economics, in which goods and services are freely given for some non-formally agreed but culturally regulated reciprocation. Many establishments are socially and environmentally conscious  so food is usually obtained from local sources and many have a garden on grounds. Some people may criticize this model or look down on it; you can't really earn huge profits with an idea like this. But earning huge profits is not the point. The point is that the value of food and labour can be expressed in different ways other than money.

Anyway, I was going to compare three establishments and how they went about the concept of pay-as-you-can pricing differently, but instead, I'll link to some of my sources, which I found interesting:

How Much Should You Charge? - An interview taking about different pricing schemes

Restaurant depends on kindness of strangers - A news article about the One World Cafe

SAME making a difference - A news article about So All May Eat

One World, Everybody Eats - OWEE's main website

Pay-What-You-Want has Patrons Perplexed - A news article about Panera's adoption of this pricing scheme.

Then we had to look at Peter Victor's Questioning Economic Growth. It reminded us that economic growth wasn't always the goal in economic policy. Our economy's obsession with bolstering business in order to increase the well being of the population has likely well overstayed it's welcome as a policy.

Then we were to watch a video presenting Juliet Schor's concept of Plentitude. She also has a blog that she keeps about the concept, which I looked through as well. I decided to do some extra research, I think this video of a lecture she did on the concept to be very useful and informative! Blogger is being stupid dumb so I'll post a link to a recording of the lecture I found on Vimeo:

Juliet Schor: Plentitude.

This screenshot is here to make this area more eye-catching, meaning you should really watch this video.

Lastly was another flashy video, this time presenting Tim Kasser's (Remember him?) High Price of Materialism. I have a quote from Tim Kasser from an interview he did.

...trying to make a lot of money, to have a lot of nice possessions…we call these goals “extrinsic” because they are focused on external rewards and other people’s opinions. In contrast, intrinsic goals include aims such as personal growth, accepting one’s self...they are likely to satisfy inherent psychological needs that psychological theories suggest all people have.

This concept appeared in his research paper as well. Anyway, we constantly receive messages about how a good life can be attained through material goods. We know from previous weeks that lots and lots of money being spent on advertising in all its forms and it's become really pervasive. This causes people to adopt materialistic values, meaning they center their lives on acquiring possessions and earning money and building their social status. This attitude influences our social relationships as well. In his research paper, as well as our Professor's, they determined that when materialistic values increase, pro-social behaviour and concern for the environment  decreases.

The video suggests determining why people act this way to direct progress. The main reason seems to be the relationship between insecurity and media influence. The video suggests blocking and muting advertisements, campaigning to remove ads from public spaces and promoting intrinsic values. These include personal growth, strengthening friendship and family ties, and aiming to improve the world. He suggests one’s lifestyle should reflect one’s intrinsic values and one can do this by finding meaningful work, spending time with people you care about, and taking part in volunteer work. He says that government policy should also reflect intrinsic values, much like Bhutan and their Gross National Happiness. He ends by saying commercialism and consumerism are powerful, but making changes to our personal lives can help break their hold.