Lonely Consumerism
It's worth thinking more about the connections between excessive consumption and loneliness
A U.S. expat in Germany recently posted a video on how some German textbooks describe U.S. “propaganda”. I think the term “propaganda” is a bit extreme in this context, but she ends the video with a quote from a German book that deserves some thought:
The U.S. has become a wasteful, consumer society of lonely individuals.
That’s a crushing critique, but I think it’s fair. More than 2/3rds of U.S. GDP is consumption — an 8 percentage point increase from the 1950s - 1970s when it averaged about 60% of GDP. During that same time, the number of single person households increased from around 7 million to nearly 40 million. U.S. consumption is the 3rd highest among the 38 OECD nations. Incidentally, the U.S. suicide rate is 7th highest among OECD nations. The U.S. Surgeon General has even adopted tackling loneliness as a top, strategic priority.
At the state level, there is some correlation between the share of a state’s economy devoted to consuming and the loneliness index as developed by AgingInPlace.org.
I won’t start preaching about consumption taxes here, but I do think the U.S. political system needs to start taking them seriously. They are a good way to reduce our debt burden, but the added social benefit might be to shift the economy away from endless consumption (and waste). If there is a connection between consuming endless shit and loneliness, a consumption tax might be a win-win.
This post is dedicated to my friend, J.L.