after the second world war, american economists and the government of the day decided to revive economic activity by creating a culture in which people were encouraged to accumulate and show off material wealth, to the point where it defined their status in society and their self-image. william rees quotes economist victor lebow as saying in 1955: "our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. we need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate." in today's world, such rhetoric seems beyond belief. yet the consumer spree carries on regardless, and few of us are aware that we're still willing slaves to a completely artificial injunction to consume, and to define ourselves by what we consume// andy coghlan, 08.07.09, new scientist
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