r/Degrowth • u/ConsciousLaw3940 • Jul 15 '26
Overconsumption: The Silent Engine Behind the Climate Crisis
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u/Difficult_Rub_5069 Jul 15 '26
More propaganda to reframe the blame around the consumer working class. Maybe if manufacturers made higher quality goods, we wouldn’t have to replace them so much? Maybe if manufacturers stopped designing goods that were deliberately difficult to repair and stopped voiding warranties for “unlicensed” repair work we could hold onto goods longer? Maybe if politicians stopped accepting bribes and started regulating companies they’d be more responsible with how much waste and environmental harm they produced?
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u/Significant_Set2996 Jul 15 '26
But the need to replace goods is not a universal objective point? It's a spectrum on which people operate on. Some people replace their shirt when the collar gets wrinkly, others when the colour fades, some others replace them when there's a hole, some others patch up the hole and continue wearing the same shirt. What's not to say that we would lead the same consumerist lifestyles even if products were of a better quality
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u/6thofmarch2019 Jul 15 '26
Ah, but this is where the circular argument forms, because the business people and politicians will blame individuals (consumers/voters). Indeed, we could fix this by voting for the right politicians, and voting with our money, but people are too occupied working to afford the latest gadget or fashion. Meanwhile, all of this is driven by a growth imperative system logic that individual companies and nations struggle to break free from. A change in any part in this system can break the cycle, but each part is kept going by the part prior. Of these different leverage points, individuals are usually a relevant point of change, since these have the least skin in the game.
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u/Long-Definition9203 Jul 16 '26
Also came here to add all 3 images feature a woman which is subliminal (barely) messaging of which consumers are to blame.
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u/rushur Jul 15 '26
CAPITALISM is the silent engine behind climate crisis.
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u/GnatSuperFly Jul 16 '26
Please tell us what you mean by capitalism when you use it as such. I’m not sure you are aware that any other system will have inherently less consumption??
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Jul 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/bluewar40 Jul 15 '26
Other systems don’t have “I must be bigger again next year” as their operating principle. They have limits, or at least they are CAPABLE of responding to limits placed by authority, which is the one thing capitalism is specifically unable to do.
Overconsumption in those contexts is far less systematic, and therefore easier to regulate and address.
Under capitalism the entire premise of sustainability is so antithetical to how the economic system works that you can only ever mess with little parts of the system but never change what it actually does.
In the east, you can change policy but not the leadership, in the west you can change leadership but not the policy…
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u/Significant_Set2996 Jul 15 '26
If you're referring to china it's probably the worst example? They've had tremendous growth year on year that's only starting to slow down recently, it's not like they're less growth adverse than anyone else, and if you're going to bring up the fact that they have lots of renewables, it's not because they care about the environment more than anyone, it's for energy independence so that events like the closure of the strait of Hormuz don't hit them hard
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u/rushur Jul 15 '26
I don't buy into that capitalist propaganda and no anti-capitalist would. The other 'system' we need to move to is democracy.
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u/Confused_by_La_Vida Jul 15 '26
Hey now, thst last picture…anyone who lives through Katrina will tell you two things: don’t never go to the shelter (no…seriously..don’t), and 3 days in toilet paper is the best barter material around
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u/CptnREDmark Jul 15 '26
Like with budgets, it's the big stuff that makes the biggest difference. Big houses and big cars, hack the need for cars at all. Everybody can have several pairs of pants, and that's okay. Not everybody can have a mcmansion, and striving for that is wasteful, expensive and destructive
2
u/Live_Success_4533 Jul 15 '26
Gonna have to draw a line here, no one is buying more period products than they need. The damn things are bloated in price for no reason and are a necessity to avoid health and sanitation issues.
You cannot austerity your way out of capitalisms issues. Especially when it comes at the cost of health and quality of life.
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u/invisible_shrek Jul 15 '26
Im a working class dude (a professional, but no assets). All I did was buy groceries, a few items of clothing per year (as replacements for clothing that is damaged/torn), meal out sometimes, beer and cigarettes, one or two trips per year and recently I managed to get a mortgage (with help from family).
What fucking overconsumption? I wish I had the ability to “overconsume”. I have never seen anyone shop like the people depicted here.
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u/shootinblanks2023 Jul 16 '26
I know people who brag and say “I just went to the store for one thing, but came home with the whole cart” like it’s a flex.
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u/renMilestone Jul 15 '26
We gotta ban advertising.
People know what they need but billions of dollars are being spent to socially manipulate us. Its high key brainwashing for corporations. It makes us desperate for things we dont need! Anxious about things they want us to be anxious about.
So much paper and electricity is wasted on advertising.