Battle for Affluence essay

Stuart Simpson has written a useful essay to complement the Battle for Affluence session at the Battle of Ideas. He argues that it is a problem that society has become redefined in terms of consumption. Not that consumption is a bad thing but the one-sided emphasis on it distorts our understanding of humanity:

“In the battle for affluence we need to redefine an affluent society as one that produces wealth for its citizens, not one that consumes the world’s resources and produces only pollution and waste. It is only through generating a more affluent society that we can begin to address any of the issues that legitimately concern us today. But more than this, the problems that are often understood to be the consequences of too much consumption, and hence too much affluence, are often the result of the contrary.”