CommentaryPrices and quantities: Unsustainable consumption and the global economy☆
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Introduction: the problem of unsustainable consumption
The ecological unsustainability of current consumption patterns is now well documented (Vitousek et al., 1986, Vitousek et al., 1997, Meadows et al., 1992, Worldwide Fund for Nature, 1999, Wilson, 2002). According to ecological footprint analysis, the world passed the point of sustainability in 1978 (Wackernagel et al., 2002). Direct measures of the state of global planetary resources, such as the comprehensive ecosystem assessment done by WRI, the World Bank, the UNDP and the UNEP find that
The global sweatshop—the case of apparel
Among the trends which have made possible the substantial rise in US consumption has been the growth of low-wage, foreign production in a variety of product categories—apparel, footwear, toys, computers, software, tourist hotels, cars, consumer electronics. These and many other commodities are artificially cheap because the rules and workings of the global economy have depressed the price and power of labor, often female, around the world.
Consider the case of apparel. Apparel is priced far too
Falling prices and rising quantities—other manufactured goods
Apparel may be an extreme case. But the dynamics of low cost production, falling import prices, rising expenditures and rising quantities appear to describe markets for a variety of other products as well. I have been able to locate data on units consumed for only some products, and usually only from 1996–1997 to 2001–2002. Unless otherwise noted, estimates of quantities are my calculations from data provided in the Census Department's Current Industrial Reports. Consumer price are from the US
Environmental impacts of rising consumption
The foregoing discussion has provided some data on the trend of rising consumption of manufactured goods by units consumed, rather than the more common metric of dollar values. I have chosen to focus on units because they are a more environmentally relevant measure. Of course units consumed is not an ideal measure. The optimal measure would be a product-specific environmental impact per unit or dollar. But such a measure does not exist. Furthermore, there are no well-elaborated models of the
The cheap banana—the collapse of primary commodities prices
So far I have discussed the growth of consumption in manufactured goods. There is an analogous development occurring with primary commodities. Cheap and falling prices made possible by the projection of US power abroad are resulting in increased consumption of imported commodities. The canonical case is perhaps the banana.
The political economy of banana production is relatively well known, however it may be worth reviewing it briefly. Early in the century, American companies opened operations
Sustainability politics and the global economy
The foregoing analysis suggests that environmentalists need to consider the obstacles to sustainable consumption created by corporations' quest for cheap labor and resources. I have argued that falling prices for imported goods have been accompanied by increases in the quantity of units consumed and that this is an important effect of the global economy and the projection of US power abroad. These developments have been insufficiently recognized in the discourse on sustainable consumption.
My
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This article is a revised version of the author's keynote to the US Society for Ecological Economics in Saratoga, NY, May 2003.