Category: Non-consumer train

Saturday’s Dominion Post included an article looking at what GDP measures and doesn’t measure. It reminded me of David Suzuki’s lovely tale that illustrates very well the need for a better measure of progress than the GDP.

“Mary and Bob live on the family farm in a small community. Bob’s parents live with them and help to care for the children. Mary home schools the children and the family lives frugally – sharing farm machinery, labour and farm produce with their neighbours. Mary volunteers her time with the community centre and hospital while Bob is a scout leader and coaches his son’s hockey team.  Bob & Mary are classed as unproductive members of society because they contribute little to the GDP.

Bob & Mary’s son is hurt in a car accident. His need for an ambulance, intensive-care unit, hospital personnel and medicine all contribute to a rise in the GDP. The son dies. Bob & Mary must pay for the funeral home, flowers, and gravediggers. It is good for the economy – the GDP goes up.

The tragedy puts a strain on the marriage. Bob places his parents in a home. The GDP grows. Bob moves to the city, rents an apartment, buys a car, gets a job. The GDP increases. Mary stays on the farm, takes out a mortgage, puts the children in day care, hires a farm hand and takes a job in the grocery store. She is also helping to build the GDP. Bob & Mary have become contributing, productive members in a society that measures progress in terms of the economy.”  p. 87 Earth Time, D. Suzuki, 1998.   

One alternative measure is the GPI – the Genuine Progress Indicator developed by the organisation, Redefining Progress. The Auckland regional council is presently working to develop a regional GPI and presented a 38 page report in July 2009 if you are interested in reading it http://www.arc.govt.nz/albany/fms/main/Documents/Auckland/Population%20and%20stats/GPI%20summary%20report.pdf

We went looking a few weekends ago for the little part of the shower unit that holds up the shower head as my mum’s had broken in half. (We had already looked at Trade Me etc). We finally found the piece but the plumbing guy said that most people didn’t buy these due to their price, they just bought whole new shower units. At $62 it was at that breaking point where you do tend to wonder if it would be best to invest a bit more and get the whole shower unit brand new given that my mum’s shower is about 12 years old. I took a gamble and stood firm to my ‘non-consumer train’ voice and just bought the actual piece that we needed rather than throwing out a perfectly good shower unit and replacing it. Only time will tell if it was the right decision.

I’ve been going through some of the boxes we had in storage after our renovation. Books take up a lot of that box space. One of the books I came across has been my reading the past week – Earth Time by David Zuzuki. It must have been just published when I bought it back in 1998. It’s moved with me at least five times in that period and has been read more than once but it still provides lots of inspirational motivation. Last night I came across a section which discusses that we can’t save the environment until we confront the heart of the problem – our demand for more. We can recycle and conserve all we like but ultimately we continue to go on consuming. The challenge is this: “If you’re like me and would like to avoid looking like a monster to your grandchildren, then I suggest you stop being silent about our plan to go on consuming the world until there simply isn’t any more there to consume (Quinn. D, cited in Suzuki, 1998, p.101). The silence might not be a conspiracy, but it may be just as effective” (Suzuki, 1998, p.101).

 

I like that challenge – not only reduce my consumerism but also don’t stay silent about society’s over-consumption. Question what I see and hear and believe and try each day to get others also thinking about the way they live.

I’m on holidays at the moment and money is pretty short so there are no trips away. I decided to create a theme holiday to make it a memorable break for when I’m back at work so this one is music based. Each day as I carry out the many projects that I’ve put aside until ‘holiday time’ I am also playing through my CD collection and reminiscing over the songs and the memories they bring back from through the years. My husband came home from work this evening and sat on the couch with me while I was watching a music DVD – we had a sing along of some old favourites! One of my holiday jobs was to sort out all my old music books and sheets of music and set up a corner in the spare room to get me into playing the guitar again. I got creative this morning and created a music box for all my music books – covered a box and lid with music sheets from my old piano book. It looks great. I’m up to day three of my holiday and haven’t spent a cent yet and have hardly put a dent in my CD collection yet. Looking forward to tomorrow!

It’s December 31^st today and despite being constantly bombarded by advertisements on the TV, in the newspaper and via junk mail I have just realized that I have managed to avoid shopping (other than food) since Christmas Eve. It’s not that I don’t love shopping. I’ve just sort of got to the point where it all seems some sort of a crazy frenzy. I want lots of things but if I were to ask myself what things I need then my shopping list becomes considerably smaller.

 

Not that I’m a no-shopping saint or anything. I’ve just decided to try and see if sometimes I can exercise constraint on my desire to have to go out and purchase ‘stuff’ as a form of entertainment. Sustainable Dave has a helpful list of questions that a consumer may want to ask themselves before purchasing things: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/get-on-board-the-non-consumption-train.html.

 

With regards to this my husband and I have been renovating our house over the last year and a few weeks ago I bought two pieces of art for the house. I really like the two pieces but on reflection about my consumer habits I’m wondering if I could instead create some of the art for my house instead of buying it? I started yesterday creating ideas in my workbook (I already had one J) and although it is very early days I’m really enjoying the creative process. A bonus is that it should take up time that I might otherwise spend shopping!