the only way to save our planet
is to become more materialistic we need
to learn to love our stuff we need to
learn to cherish it to care for it to
repair it to maintain it and when we
don’t need it anymore we need to help it
find a new home the only way that 8
billion people are going to be able to
share this one little planet of ours is
if we learn to love our stuff but we’re
actually trained to love wasting things
were actually taught from an early age
that it’s not just ok to throw away
perfectly good things but the to do so
and to buy new things to replace the
perfectly good old things is good for
the economy how ridiculous we’ve been
told that throwing away perfectly good
shoes and perfectly good shirts is a
good way to create jobs for people that
make shirts and shoes that we don’t need
this is economically absurd as it is
historically New Economics is supposed
to be about efficiency yet for the past
couple of decades we’ve been told that
waste that waste is a good way to create
wealth so what’s going on how is our
public debate being turned upside down
like this well my answer is surprisingly
simple we’re using the wrong words the
words consumerism and materialism are
usually used interchangeably but in fact
they mean the exact opposite consumerism
refers to the love of buying things the
thrill of the new but materialism refers
to the love of the object itself
materialism tells us to love our things
but if we loved our things the thought
of throwing them away would cause us
imagine imagine you were buying a new
puppy think about the joy of buying a
new puppy think about the thrill of
taking the new puppy home think about
how much effort you put into choosing
the right puppy for you now imagine a
year after how you’d feel when someone
invents a newer cuter designer puppy
would you throw your puppy away or would
you love it would you cherish it would
you want to keep it for as long as you
can now I know what you’re thinking our
economy is built on the need to throw
away perfectly good things our economy
is built on the idea that replacing old
things with newer cuter models is good
for the economy that’s how we create
jobs that’s how we make our economy grow
so how did we get ourselves into this
mess and how do we get ourselves out of
it well for me the idea that when we
love something we keep it doesn’t just
extend to puppies it extends to any of
the things that have meaning to us that
we love but we’ve been trained we’ve
been trained for years perhaps for our
whole life to think that throwing things
away is actually a way to make ourselves
happy it makes room to replace those
things with new cooler cuter models the
idea the idea that we should spend money
we don’t have to buy things we don’t
need to impress people we don’t know is
often known as affluenza and it’s a
brand new idea in the 7,000 years of
recorded history it’s really only in the
past couple of decades that people
believe that making things and throwing
them out even when they work perfectly
well is a sensible idea and because it’s
a new idea it doesn’t mean we have to
keep it forever it’s up to us it’s our
culture that decides which ideas make
sense and which ideas don’t now it can
be hard for people to see just how weird
some of our ideas are just as a fish
finds it hard to taste the salt water
that it swims in we find it hard to
detect the impact of our culture of
affluenza on our own decision-making so
let me give you a thought experiment
if throwing out last season’s clothes or
last season’s phone and replacing it
with a new one is good for the economy
then it must follow that throwing out
last season’s puppy is good for the
economy – imagine if our culture told us
that when a puppy turned one we should
kill it and replace it with a cuter cool
a new one imagine all of the economic
activity we would create in the puppy
sector now I know some of you might find
it abhorrent
to kill your puppy but that’s okay maybe
you could pay someone to do it for you
then we could create more jobs as well
if the idea of disposing of a puppy when
a newer cuter model comes along is
abhorrent then how is that any different
from the idea that disposing of a phone
or a pair of shoes or a lounge suite is
any different now I know you’re sitting
there thinking how on earth do we get
from talking about materialism to
killing puppets but I hope you can see
that this is the culture that we’ve
created if we love things if we cherish
things if we were genuinely
materialistic than the idea of disposing
of those things because a newer cuter
model came along would cause us pain not
joy but of course just as the fish
struggles to taste the salt water we
struggle to see the impact that our
culture has on what we think a sensible
idea is we struggle to understand why it
is we do some things and not others so
let me give you another example let me
give you an example of grass the largest
irrigated crop in America is lawn lawn
more land is dedicated to the growing of
lawn than any other irrigated crop now
ask yourself why do people grow lawn is
it because lawn seed is cheaper
is it because lawn mowers are cheaper or
do people grow lawn because their
parents grew lawn and because their
neighbors grill on and because having a
lawn is a nice way to fit in and behave
like everyone else just like chucking
out last year’s phone and just like
chucking out last year’s clothes our
culture has an enormous impact on the
decisions we make imagine if our culture
told us that growing vegetables in our
backyard was a good idea imagine if our
culture told us that growing lawn
harvesting a crop every weekend and then
tipping the crop in the garbage bin
every weekend was a weird idea now I
know no one here would do anything as
weird as harvest a crop of lawn and then
tip it straight in the bin but I’m a bit
worried about the person sitting next to
you so let’s back up we have an
influence over our culture we have an
influence over what’s normal what’s
weird and what’s great and if we
collectively decided to spend less of
our money on stuff and more of our money
on services and get some of our things
repaired and drew some of our own food
we wouldn’t harm the economy we would
change the shape of our economy we would
change the shape of our economy in such
a way that by buying more services and
less stuff we would actually create more
jobs not less we would have less impact
on the natural environment not more and
we’d probably have more fun than
spending all that money on the stuff
that we never used we have the ability
to shape this culture if we want to it
is up to us to decide how to reshape our
economy and in doing so we need to
understand that it’s not complicated we
do it all the time I grew up in the
household
we’re not once in my childhood did I go
out for breakfast not once but today
cafes are amongst the biggest employers
in our economy imagine if all the money
we spent on bottled water was spent on
locally produced food imagine if all the
money we spend on kitchen renovations
appliances were spent on restaurant
meals imagine if all the money that we
spent on big cars to impress our
neighbors were spent on big solar panels
to impress our neighbors every time we
spend money we reshape our economy and
every time we do so public
we actually change culture as well we
change what’s normal and we change
what’s we so if I’ve convinced you that
killing a puppy is a bad idea and if
I’ve convinced you that chucking away
perfectly useful stuff to replace it
with newer cuticular stuff is a bad idea
well what can you do differently well
one never forget that every time you
spend money you help to reshape the
economy if you buy more of the things
you want more of and less of the things
we want less of we will change the shape
of the economy second it’s not just your
money that counts it’s your votes that
count a lot of the money that we spend
is spent collectively if we want to live
in a society that spends more money on
health or education or renewable energy
we need to vote for people that want to
spend more money on those things if we
want to live in a society that spends
less money on health through education
or renewable energy then we need to vote
for people that are spending less money
on those things and finally next time
somebody tells you that we need to waste
time waste resources and waste money
buying things we don’t need to make the
economy strong understand by that logic
by that logic we should kill our puppies
and get cuter ones every year but let’s
not kill our puppies let’s learn to love
our stuff instead and kill the culture
of affluenza [Applause]
is to become more materialistic we need
to learn to love our stuff we need to
learn to cherish it to care for it to
repair it to maintain it and when we
don’t need it anymore we need to help it
find a new home the only way that 8
billion people are going to be able to
share this one little planet of ours is
if we learn to love our stuff but we’re
actually trained to love wasting things
were actually taught from an early age
that it’s not just ok to throw away
perfectly good things but the to do so
and to buy new things to replace the
perfectly good old things is good for
the economy how ridiculous we’ve been
told that throwing away perfectly good
shoes and perfectly good shirts is a
good way to create jobs for people that
make shirts and shoes that we don’t need
this is economically absurd as it is
historically New Economics is supposed
to be about efficiency yet for the past
couple of decades we’ve been told that
waste that waste is a good way to create
wealth so what’s going on how is our
public debate being turned upside down
like this well my answer is surprisingly
simple we’re using the wrong words the
words consumerism and materialism are
usually used interchangeably but in fact
they mean the exact opposite consumerism
refers to the love of buying things the
thrill of the new but materialism refers
to the love of the object itself
materialism tells us to love our things
but if we loved our things the thought
of throwing them away would cause us
imagine imagine you were buying a new
puppy think about the joy of buying a
new puppy think about the thrill of
taking the new puppy home think about
how much effort you put into choosing
the right puppy for you now imagine a
year after how you’d feel when someone
invents a newer cuter designer puppy
would you throw your puppy away or would
you love it would you cherish it would
you want to keep it for as long as you
can now I know what you’re thinking our
economy is built on the need to throw
away perfectly good things our economy
is built on the idea that replacing old
things with newer cuter models is good
for the economy that’s how we create
jobs that’s how we make our economy grow
so how did we get ourselves into this
mess and how do we get ourselves out of
it well for me the idea that when we
love something we keep it doesn’t just
extend to puppies it extends to any of
the things that have meaning to us that
we love but we’ve been trained we’ve
been trained for years perhaps for our
whole life to think that throwing things
away is actually a way to make ourselves
happy it makes room to replace those
things with new cooler cuter models the
idea the idea that we should spend money
we don’t have to buy things we don’t
need to impress people we don’t know is
often known as affluenza and it’s a
brand new idea in the 7,000 years of
recorded history it’s really only in the
past couple of decades that people
believe that making things and throwing
them out even when they work perfectly
well is a sensible idea and because it’s
a new idea it doesn’t mean we have to
keep it forever it’s up to us it’s our
culture that decides which ideas make
sense and which ideas don’t now it can
be hard for people to see just how weird
some of our ideas are just as a fish
finds it hard to taste the salt water
that it swims in we find it hard to
detect the impact of our culture of
affluenza on our own decision-making so
let me give you a thought experiment
if throwing out last season’s clothes or
last season’s phone and replacing it
with a new one is good for the economy
then it must follow that throwing out
last season’s puppy is good for the
economy – imagine if our culture told us
that when a puppy turned one we should
kill it and replace it with a cuter cool
a new one imagine all of the economic
activity we would create in the puppy
sector now I know some of you might find
it abhorrent
to kill your puppy but that’s okay maybe
you could pay someone to do it for you
then we could create more jobs as well
if the idea of disposing of a puppy when
a newer cuter model comes along is
abhorrent then how is that any different
from the idea that disposing of a phone
or a pair of shoes or a lounge suite is
any different now I know you’re sitting
there thinking how on earth do we get
from talking about materialism to
killing puppets but I hope you can see
that this is the culture that we’ve
created if we love things if we cherish
things if we were genuinely
materialistic than the idea of disposing
of those things because a newer cuter
model came along would cause us pain not
joy but of course just as the fish
struggles to taste the salt water we
struggle to see the impact that our
culture has on what we think a sensible
idea is we struggle to understand why it
is we do some things and not others so
let me give you another example let me
give you an example of grass the largest
irrigated crop in America is lawn lawn
more land is dedicated to the growing of
lawn than any other irrigated crop now
ask yourself why do people grow lawn is
it because lawn seed is cheaper
is it because lawn mowers are cheaper or
do people grow lawn because their
parents grew lawn and because their
neighbors grill on and because having a
lawn is a nice way to fit in and behave
like everyone else just like chucking
out last year’s phone and just like
chucking out last year’s clothes our
culture has an enormous impact on the
decisions we make imagine if our culture
told us that growing vegetables in our
backyard was a good idea imagine if our
culture told us that growing lawn
harvesting a crop every weekend and then
tipping the crop in the garbage bin
every weekend was a weird idea now I
know no one here would do anything as
weird as harvest a crop of lawn and then
tip it straight in the bin but I’m a bit
worried about the person sitting next to
you so let’s back up we have an
influence over our culture we have an
influence over what’s normal what’s
weird and what’s great and if we
collectively decided to spend less of
our money on stuff and more of our money
on services and get some of our things
repaired and drew some of our own food
we wouldn’t harm the economy we would
change the shape of our economy we would
change the shape of our economy in such
a way that by buying more services and
less stuff we would actually create more
jobs not less we would have less impact
on the natural environment not more and
we’d probably have more fun than
spending all that money on the stuff
that we never used we have the ability
to shape this culture if we want to it
is up to us to decide how to reshape our
economy and in doing so we need to
understand that it’s not complicated we
do it all the time I grew up in the
household
we’re not once in my childhood did I go
out for breakfast not once but today
cafes are amongst the biggest employers
in our economy imagine if all the money
we spent on bottled water was spent on
locally produced food imagine if all the
money we spend on kitchen renovations
appliances were spent on restaurant
meals imagine if all the money that we
spent on big cars to impress our
neighbors were spent on big solar panels
to impress our neighbors every time we
spend money we reshape our economy and
every time we do so public
we actually change culture as well we
change what’s normal and we change
what’s we so if I’ve convinced you that
killing a puppy is a bad idea and if
I’ve convinced you that chucking away
perfectly useful stuff to replace it
with newer cuticular stuff is a bad idea
well what can you do differently well
one never forget that every time you
spend money you help to reshape the
economy if you buy more of the things
you want more of and less of the things
we want less of we will change the shape
of the economy second it’s not just your
money that counts it’s your votes that
count a lot of the money that we spend
is spent collectively if we want to live
in a society that spends more money on
health or education or renewable energy
we need to vote for people that want to
spend more money on those things if we
want to live in a society that spends
less money on health through education
or renewable energy then we need to vote
for people that are spending less money
on those things and finally next time
somebody tells you that we need to waste
time waste resources and waste money
buying things we don’t need to make the
economy strong understand by that logic
by that logic we should kill our puppies
and get cuter ones every year but let’s
not kill our puppies let’s learn to love
our stuff instead and kill the culture
of affluenza [Applause]
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