High inflation and expensive energy ‘ruins’ consumerism

By Maarten Van Andel

About this column:

In a weekly column, alternately written by Eveline van Zeeland, Eugène Franken, PG Kroeger, Katleen Gabriels, Carina Weijma, Bernd Maier-Leppla, Willemijn Brouwer and Colinda de Beer, Innovation Origins tries to figure out what the future will look like. These columnists, sometimes joined by guest bloggers such as Maarten van Andel, are all working in their own way to find solutions to the problems of our time. So tomorrow will be good. Here are all the previous articles.

The Dutch daily newspaper Financieele Dagblad laments that the appetite of consumers for, say, buying a new teleivision or a pair of Nike shoes is being ruined. This leaves logistics warehouses jam-packed with laptops, clothing, furniture and electronics. I have to wonder what is actually being “ruined”.

This actually strikes me as good news as far as sustainability and circularity is concerned: Less consumption of energy and raw materials and the extended use of stuff that already exists. Plus, I was once taught in an economics class, lower levels of consumer spending lead to lower inflation. This makes for twice as much good news.

 

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Less growth

A ‘gigantic recession’ is said to be on its way. Economic growth threatens to drop from 4.6 percent to just 0.7 percent next year. We are apparently caught collectively in a pattern of thinking that this is debilitating, menacing and problematic. These negative connotations seem to leave no room in our economy, the media and our minds for the benefits that people and the environment stand to gain from that development. It is not even a case of economic contraction next year, just less growth.

Those crowded warehouses highlight that we are constantly making stuff before (and even without) there being a demand for it. No one wants to say “no” when they are in retail, because that costs more money than selling off surplus stock by putting it on sale or throwing it away. So, once again, I was dreading Black Friday, the consumer orgy of our modern society that is supposedly striving to make itself sustainable.