Afterword

The wide range of thought and practice covered by the 87 essays in this book make it abundantly clear that consumer society is a complex system of production-consumption. Its many elements are intertwined and mutually dependent, including the structure of the economy and the financial system, major societal institutions, and the built environment as well as social practices, behaviors, beliefs, dominant values, cultural understandings, political ideologies, power centers, and individ-ual and collective identities. This complexity makes the system resilient in the face of challenges and resistant to any rapid changes. 

This complex system underwent explosive growth in the United States after World War II. Driven by business, media indoctrination, and government propaganda, it quickly spread to other parts of the world. Economic growth fueled by consumerism brought unprecedented material pros-perity to the Global North, so that any reservations about the headlong race into consumerism were outshone by new gadgets and cars, and the sounds of endless construction: of houses, roads, suburbs, oil refineries, and much more. Even the rebellious decade of the sixties did not slow that down. 

But we have long known that consumerism in high-income countries has been paid for by bor-rowing from the future of our children and their children’s children, and by exploitation of the low-income countries, which supplied cheap labor, fossil energy, food, and minerals. It resulted in massive ecological degradation, much of it in distant locations. 

The extraction of wealth by the haves from the have-nots, necessary for maintaining high stand-ards of living and societal peace among the haves, continues. Billions of people around the globe, who were kept from sharing the fruits of consumer society, suffer from its consequences: poverty, unemployment, political instability, violent conflicts, pollution, and climate-related natural dis-asters. Disenfranchised and prospectless youth the world over are restless. They are abandoning traditions and are attracted to the lifestyles they see on the screens of their TVs and mobile phones. But to enable them to satisfy their basic needs, including consuming more, wealthy societies must consume less. 

Despite the high price paid for the affluence of a minority of the global population, delivering well-being is just as elusive today as ever. Social solidarity, democracy, and widespread satisfac-tion with life in the high-income countries are in decline. Instead, we are witnessing a concen-tration of political and economic power, mistrust in people and institutions, declining political participation, and alarming rates of mental and physical ill health. The younger generations in high-income countries are anxious about the future. Their elders’ prescriptions sound hollow to them: work hard, even at the cost of spending time with family and friends; compete with your neighbors and friends; accumulate as much wealth and stuff as you can; and do not rock the boat. 

We write this Afterword at a time of heightened social divisions and shifts further toward the political right in major global power centers. This includes the polarization of wealth and political discourses, international isolationism, and a decline in climate mitigation and social safety net poli-cies. Global billionaires are grabbing political power in their countries while having more solidar-ity with each other than with their own compatriots. 

In the meantime, advanced technologies continue to drive consumption, using artificial intel-ligence and social media. In the United States, commerce on social media platforms has more than doubled in the last three years. Most purchases are made by the 18–44 age cohort, who also spend the greatest amount of time online. Other large economies in Europe, China, Australia, and oth-ers follow closely behind. The rate of increase in demand for energy surpasses the growth rate in renewable energy supply. 

Many visions of a less consumerist future have been published, ranging from abstract to more specific, place-based, and culture-specific. That body of literature is burgeoning. But the question of how to transition toward a different organizing principle of social and economic life has been less explored, and even less supported by empirical data. 

As we noted in the Introduction (section 6), the cause of sustainable consumption is a political orphan. In a related scenario, what would happen, for instance, if younger generations collectively reject a consumerist way of life, extreme individualism, and competition? What if they were to look to other cultures and value systems for inspiration? This is not outside the realm of possibili-ties. The Fridays for Future international climate movement demonstrated that young people can make themselves heard and affect government agendas. Going forward, they could become the engine of changing social norms. 

In this volume, we provide a common language for inspiring champions of change around the globe. We translate often-abstract concepts into their sphere of implementation. Our hope is that the vocabulary will create a political space for a discourse about consumption and lifestyles; and be used to grow a coherent movement that rejects consumerist lifestyles.