Please can you refute this argument.

re: Please can you refute this argument.

Jack Gardner — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:44:00 GMT

The people are happy, they are the fat of the land

In a proud country where chips are legal but guns are banned

Isn't it paradise when you have the freedom choose

between the luxury goods, drugs, fags, chips or booze

thebasildonbloggerstrikesagain.com

re: Please can you refute this argument.

Bob Ashwood — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:33:19 GMT

The last comment on this blog was some time ago - Mar '09. However, given that Rory first posted it in Nov '07, it proves what a fascinating topic 'brand' is. And when you attach 'brand' to 'issues of conscience' like the environment, it tears us apart. Before marketing people ate, used and carried stuff around with them. Now we consume. Consider the word - CONSUME. Conspicuous isn't it. People spent money based on what I think is a motivational line with 'survival' at one end and 'reward' at the other. Depending on how much we have to spend we pick a point on that line that defines our behaviour. At the survival end of the scale we tend to eat rather than consume. From somewhere in the middle of the line right up to the 'reward end, we consume to increasing degree of conspicuousness.

re: Please can you refute this argument.

Brian Millar — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:32:18 GMT

Anybody who's ever read the FT How To Spend It supplement will know there's some truth in this. Five thousand pound shoes, 100 thousand pound stereos and so on keep rich people's consumption volumes down.

What's good for the environment however may not be so good for the economy, as bankers competed to raise their bonuses so as to be able to afford the same size house in a better postcode, the same car from a better maker (Tuareg vs Cayenne anyone?), Butlins holidays at Bedruthan Steps, studio quality speakers to play low-fi MP3s on, etc.

The alpha mentality this caused also appears to have sunk Iceland, Ireland and Eastern Europe and generally knacked us all for a couple of years.

How To Spend It is a wonderful lesson in the law of diminishing returns.

re: Please can you refute this argument.

Mark Smith — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:12:51 GMT