"Overconsumption is no longer a signal of success,"

[4dsc]

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/004876.html

The Future Laboratory, Conscience Consumers and the New Austerity

Chris Sanderson and his colleagues at the Future Laboratory believe we're seeing a fundamental shift in how people think about the things they buy. I stopped by their London offices to find out what they're seeing and predicting.

"Overconsumption is no longer a signal of success," he says, sitting at a table strewn with proofsheets for the Future Labs house magazine, Viewpoints. Instead of conspicuous consumption, he says, a "conspicuous abstention" is emerging. People want less noise in their lives. They want design whose form serves function beautifully. They want homes with a spare, modern aesthetic and the health and sustainability benefits of green building. They're almost proudly adopting a "make do and mend, waste not want not mentality." Most of all, they're hungry for a connection between the things they buy and the lives they want to be leading -- and recognizing that sometimes the best thing to buy is, simply, nothing.

The Future Lab folks call this movement "Nu Austerity," and it has real implications for both the future of sustainability and commerce.

[Warpy]

1. Mr and Mrs Trendy don't have a CHOICE

They have to make do or do without. That disposable income they thought they had has disappeared into the gas tank, the supermarket till, and the bowels of their health insurance provider. The credit cards are maxed out and the companies are getting stuffy and making noises about raising their interest rates based on the debt load they extended back in the good old days. Those paper profits on their house are paper only, since they know the damn thing won't sell, even at a loss.

I remember the sales job on "voluntary simplicity" durring Daddy Bush's term. I remember how cheerfully we greeted that one, and I suspect the "Nu Austerity" (translation: New Poverty) will get the same reception.

[FredStembottom]

2. Hey! I've had that "Nu Austerity" for decades now!

It's great! Just work 60 hours a week as a blue-collar worker inside a huge multi-national!

Yer "Nu Austerity" is delivered each week!

It's simple and automatic: your paycheck adopts an increasingly spare, modern aesthetic as you slide inexorably behind the rate of inflation year after year!

You proudly make-do-and-mend as the life you want to be leading has no possibility of being sullied with the things you buy!

I am so proud of the "Future Lab" for spotting what "people" are up to. Expect to see the millions of Nu-ly Austere folks, just like me! - splashed across the pages of the magazines at your supermarket!

(I better go and wash my uniform for the pictures!)