Who Said That?

Gray Merriam | Oct 06, 2021

Someone said that our fundamental role as members of society is to be consumers. Who could possibly have said that? An economist? A spokesperson for big industry or big business? A retailers’ representative?

An equally valid statement could be: our fundamental role as members of society is to care for our global and our local environments and for each other.

Even if we are careful, any consumption affects the resources of our global environment. Those effects may be in some far away land and could be in the future but it affects someone’s environment and it uses some of earth’s riches - - either renewable or not renewable. If our rate of consumption exceeds the earth’s rate of production of a resource, that resource becomes not renewable.

No. Consumption is not our fundamental role in society. That view is voiced simply to support the artificial system that has been constructed by business economics. Consumption is not fundamentally involved in treating each other morally or in caring for the natural process on which we all ultimately depend.

Gray Merriam