The treadmill of consumption, Globalization, and Global Warming To give you back
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The treadmill of consumption, Globalization, and Global Warming
To give you background on this chapter, here is a brief synopsis of Bell’s ideas:
Bell uses a metaphor of treadmills to explain why we in the modern world produce so much and consume so much, and yet end up less happy and more polluted than people who lived before industrialization. The Treadmill of Production is caused by the nature of capitalism. A firm must produce something to sell in order to make profit. That firm competes against other firms who are also trying to make profit. The easiest way to make profit is to cut costs, so both firms begin to pay workers less money, and at the same time produce more goods to sell, in order to compete successfully to make profit. Thus workers are losing out on pay, while at the same time the firms are making more and more stuff, which causes pollution (factories emit carbon into the air, chemicals into the land and water, etc) and uses massive amounts of energy in the form of fossil fuels to make the stuff. But neither firm can jump off the treadmill, because capitalism is based on profit – if you don’t make profit you fail. So both firms run faster and faster on the treadmill, producing more and more to make profit, and polluting more and more in the process.
But those firms cant keep running on their treadmills unless people buy their products. And that is where the treadmill of consumption comes in. The chapter that is available is all about that.
So read the whole chapter first, then come back and think about these questions.
What does Bell mean when he talks about the treadmill consumption? How do the social desires for goods translate into consumption?
Think about the ways social status influences this treadmill, and use Veblen’s insights to illustrate.
How do these two treadmills (which operate together to keep each other going) create environmental problems?
Now put it all together in terms of a global economic system. Think about the interconnection of our global economy, and discuss how these treadmills are running at the global level. How is global warming an outcome of this system (or, another way to ask it is, how does this system cause global warming?)
Application/Research: given the way these treadmills operate, how do we change this? How do we jump off them, or get on new ones? Think of two possible ways we could change the way we live that would give us more happiness while at the same time reducing the social and environmental damage caused by global capitalism. Make sure you explain how your suggestions meet the problems you detailed in your answers above. This could be specific to the country you are researching, or more general ideas for everyone
Explanation / Answer
It is human nature to buy new items, in todays world when social media plays an important role people tend to buy new things to maintain there social status.When people buy for status, the bar always rises. A status-driven consumer can never have enough, even though,and the research shows this,buying more doesn’t raise happiness. This is called the “treadmill of consumption.” This treadmill, is the “process of moving ahead materially without any real gain in satisfaction.” Like a drug addict, more and more “doses” of shiny objects are needed to get the same “high.” But “acquiring more possessions doesn’t take us any closer to happiness; it just speeds up the treadmill.This is treadmill of consumption.The irony, of course, is that our economy is built on the treadmill of consumption. It depends on it. Without the treadmill of consumption, the economy would collapse. A society without the treadmill of consumption would be a very different one from the one we have now.
The second is Treadmill of production.to cater to the treadmill of consumption we need continous production which means we have treadmill of production To begin to understand the basic assumptions of treadmill of productions theory , it is necessary to begin by defining some of that approaches key terms. At the core of Treadmill of Production is the idea that capitalism is an ecological destructive means of production, and that the processes of producing and consuming goods generates ecological disorganization .Ecological additions consist of the emission of pollutants into the ecosystem. Over time as the treadmill of production accelerates, it generates larger quantities of ecological additions, and emits increased quantities of pollution which may also be more concentrated with respect to toxicity. These ecological additions also produce ecological disorganization by changing nature and accelerating other ecologically destructive tendencies, more and more factories produce ecological problems.which indirectly help in increasing the the temperatures world wide leading to global warming.
How do we try to stop both of these treadmills.we need to educate people specially younger generation to reuse,recycle and not to run after social status. one article i read of a buddhist monk, a 3,000 year old text at a Buddhist Monastery. In it were discussed the lifestyle of Buddhist monks. It stated that a monk should have very few material possessions and stated namely the Buddhist robe and begging bowl for sustanence among them. The text went on to state that a monk should only get a new robe once a year or when the old robe became too stained and torn to function as a robe. However, it went on to say that the old robe should not be thrown out but kept and used as an undergarment for when it got cold. And when the undergarment became to frayed to be used as such it should be used as bedding. And when it was to tattered for bedding it should be cut into pieces and those used as rags to clean oneself and ones begging bowl. we need to rework our thinking and develop products that will not be used for a few months and thrown away. We need to adopt a mindset of quality and reliability that once was the norm. The future needs to adopt some of what worked in the near and distant past in order to break this treadmill of consumption that only leads to a waste of resources and lives.
we need to educate the youth the power of satisfaction in our lives,plantmore trees and enjoy the nature
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