Those who have never been "rich" or "well-off" already know the value of the dollar, and are already in this mode of only consuming what makes good sense. It is the affluent or middle-income earners that seem to consume every product that comes along, even if throwing it out next year to "move-up" to a bigger, better, higher-quality, faster, whatever item. This is a difficulty that occurs with each new development since it can produce better products but this immediately make previous products obsolete or redundant (read "old-hat" or "old" or "out-of-date"). If the consumer fails to buy into this new technology, support for future better products may fail. It is because of this conundrum that it is difficult to sort out the proper direction to take.
Take It To The Limit
Taking this notion of product progress to the limit, project a world where every product that we could ever think of needing were of high enough quality to last us a lifetime while performing its function without fail. There are examples, if one thinks about it, and the increase in acquiring "collectibles" or "antiques" supports this somewhat. Further, make these excellent products affordable to each of us. Now, what is it that would be needed in this world and what businesses would survive? Consumables would be reduced to water, food and energy. The number of product manufacturers would shrink so that the only "customers" would be the ongoing growth in the global population (estimate about 1% annually or 60,000,000 new customers per year). Capitalism would flounder, surviving monopolies would likely strengthen although with less income.
A World of Waste
In that unlikely world, the waste would be much reduced as we tried to wear out our excellent products that would last many decades. The energy required to manufacture "throw-away" products would be essentially eliminated and could be used for providing comfort in our highly energy-efficient homes and vehicles. Almost all energy would come from the sun, the wind, hydro power and re-claimed heat from small amounts of manufacturing. Materials that did become surplus from the global death rate (where inheritance of these did not happen), would be rebuilt, repaired or replaced. Reclamation of materials would be valuable, logical and waste reducing. Research would be directed towards new ways to profit from any waste that still remained (this is already happening in a small way).
The Consumer Needs To Change
The consumer would have to be less fickle, less inclined to be "bored" with and indeed more proud and respectful of his present possessions. These would be excellent quality and have extended useful lifetimes. We wouldn't be replacing our "stuff" every few months or years, and there would be more time and money for the pleasures in life. Warranty and guarantee servicing (and all of the ensuing aggravation) would not be required. Purchasing expensive extended warrantees would also not be needed. Many companies that have been created in the last several years to take advantage of consumers taking a chance on poor quality products eventually would not be needed and would have to switch to different products during the transition or switch businesses. Overall, the changes throughout would be difficult for business and consumer. But that's alright. We have accomplished difficult things before, and are usually craving a challenge. As a consumer, we must start taking more responsibility for ensuring that our dollars are spent wisely, not so much to save personal money, but to direct the evolution of our renewable and re-usable world.
Stay with me and make the difficult changes to our consumer-driven world as we try to save what's left.
