CONSUMERISM - THE WORST WAY TO GROW?

When the world desperately wants to survive amidst problems of global warming and wide-spread poverty, we ought to look at consumerism and how fast and drastically it has affected the world. Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the purchase of goods and services in ever-greater amounts.

Where does this start from? If I say it starts from the stock market, the link may not seem direct. Let me explain, investors put in money on stocks of companies which they feel will grow, giving them higher dividends and price appreciation. Companies get this cash from investors and invest in projects which will bring highest returns. Companies are become biased towards growth because they want to show increased turnover and profits quarter on quarter to their investors. How do they grow? One, by manufacturing more goods and services, catering to more geographical locations, and two, more importantly by 'creating' more demand by using promotion and marketing. Today, advertising is a several hundred-billion-dollar industry, which is about ten times the entire GDP of the U.S. economy at the turn of the twentieth century when the industry began. This growth imperative is a result of the capitalist system, which extends beyond the investor to the system itself. 

If Infosys recently has not been growing it has been shunned by the investors, who are looking for greener pastures. Infosys on the other hand, by growing too slow risks being taken over. Very few slow-growers, would be willing to admit that and hence return the money back to the share holders, because of their inherent urge to grow. Central banks and Governments of all countries try to spur growth, because falling growth reduces investments, which in turn slows production ad sales. This is the gloom or recession, which could lead to depression or failure of capitalist system. Workers experience layoffs and default on their bank loans; falling profits and share prices in the stock markets deplete the value of pension funds; bankruptcies soar along with government budget deficits and budget cuts.

For this reason, most observers are very hesitant to question this growth imperative of capitalism. We understand the importance of consuming more. But have we missed out on issues that are probably more important than to keep the capitalist system thriving?

Human civilisation as a whole has caused ecocide 200 times more in the last 200 years, as compared to the last 20,000 years. Wake up call? Disparities between humans have never been so great. At United Nations University a reports says that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000. The question is not the sustainability of an economic system, the question is sustainability of the planet and true happiness of its souls. 

Consumption driven growth is an inefficient way of achieving reduction in poverty. Between 1990 and 2001, for every growth of US$100 in world's per capita incomw; just $0.60 made its way into the hands of the people who needed it. With this ratio to achieve poverty reduction by one dollar, an extra US$166 worth needs to be produced and consumed globally. Such an approach is both economically and ecologically inefficient. 

We measure what we produce, in GDP, as a measure of growth - which economists call a mathematical and universally common measure of growth. However, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz (on Sustainability and Growth) talked about the idea that “we grow what we measure." and because we are measuring the wrong stuff, we are growing wrong. 

I am not concerned about India's GDP growth slowing to under 5%, I am concerned about India's Gross National Happiness degrowing every year. Of course it may temporarily lead to more unemployment, crash in the stock market but if we address issues of happiness we probably do not need to worry. 

People, rich and poor alike, attempt to impress others and seek to gain advantage through what Veblen coined "conspicuous consumption" and the ability to engage in “conspicuous leisure.” In this work Veblen argued that consumption is used as a way to gain and signal status. Through "conspicuous consumption" often came "conspicuous waste," which Veblen detested.

Human mind has been re-programed to think happiness is consuming and possessing things, measured by the numbered of toys one owns. Changing that outlook, that has been shaped over the last century, is a big challenge. 

Contemplation in the path of spirituality and yog under a selfless Guru, may give us, the much required deeper thinking before we consume more than just-required.    

WHY THE HAMBURGER IS NOT REALLY CHEAP?

HOW AMERICANS SHOULD CALCULATE THE COST OF A HAMBURGER

(Excerpts from Interview with Micheal Pollan, a former editor at Harper's Magazine, is the author of The Botany of Desire and several other books that examine the intersections between science and culture.)

41,000,000 cows are slaughtered every year for beef in US alone. The U.S. beef industry is made up of more than 1 million businesses, farms and ranches. Per capita spending for beef in retail and food service was about $249 in 2008 — up about $50 from 2001, almost 5 times growth in 7 years! Ever wondered how this growth came about? Let us understand some background.

Cows have the most highly evolved digestive organ on the planet, called the rumen. And the rumen can digest grass. It takes cellulose in grass, and turns it into protein, very nutritious protein. However, cows for slaughter are not fed grass on grasslands but corn on choked cow-farms or feedlots. Corn is cheap and makes them grow much more quickly and fatter and people like their meat really fat and marbled. In capitalism, time is money. The big problem is that cows are not evolved to digest corn. It creates all sorts of problems for them including their rumen bloating up like a balloon or their liver abscesses. By feeding them what they're not equipped to eat well, we then go down the path of technological fixes – primarily antibiotics.

Why should we have a problem with this system?

1.       Cheap meat is a product of lots of antibiotics given to animals. Over half of the antibiotics in the U.S. go to livestock -- that means these drugs no longer work for human patients. The reason you have trouble finding a good antibiotic when your child has an ear infection is directly related to the cost of that cheap hamburger.

2.      When the animals arrive at the meatpacking plant from cow-farms, they're carrying quite a bit of manure. Microbes like E.Coli O157 is now very common in the manure of feedlot animals. And if we ingest only 10 of those bacteria, they can kill us, because they release this lethal toxin. Food poisoning and costs of death is never calculated in the price you pay for a hamburger.

3.       If you talk to environmentalists, they're very concerned about cow farms because all of the water that comes out of them is also full of pharmaceuticals. There are hormones in the water. They are finding fish with strange sexual characteristics downstream from feedlots. The antibiotics get into the environment also.

4.       The reason we can grow corn so cheaply is because we give the corn, chemical fertilizer that is a fossil fuel product. It's takes about 100 gallons of oil to grow a single animal! So we've taken the rumen, which is this sustainable solar organ, and we've turned it into just another fossil fuel burner. We surely do not want that!

5.       Due to centralized system of meat processing, infection from one animal can spread rapidly country wide. Authorities find it hard to trace the source.

The great lesson of ecology is that everything is connected. And it's true. So next time you're reaching for that cheap food, you might ask, is it really so cheap and above all, worth taking the risk?

Each one of us should try and connect to ourselves deeply, through Yog and Pranayaam. That way, we will think twice before we hurt anyone in the ecology.