I was reading through the Productivity Commission's (PC) Annual Report 07/08. In it contained some interesting views - views that I don't think are helpful in trying to deal with our society's over consumption and materialistic view of the world.
The PC seems to have the "Growth Fetish" (from Clive Hamilton's book of the same name), whereby growth at all costs is the mantra (or disease) inflicting the group.
In the PC's own words it says: "Why the emphasis on productivity growth for the future? Future income growth provides the means for dealing with emerging demographic and environmental challenges, reducing the need to forgo consumption or living standards." In the same sentence it has suggested that in order to help the environment we must consume more via income growth.
In the very first sentence of Chapter 1 the report says, "Productivity growth is important to Australia because, through income growth, it contributes to our community wellbeing." Once again we have a view that says wellbeing can ONLY be achieved via monetary means - which is a false notion.
Countless upon countless international reports have shown that "wellbeing" has little to do with monetary rewards but everything to do with sense of community connectedness, social inclusion, self-esteem, to name but three. These things reply heavily on non-monetary mechanisms. I believe in order to move toward universal wellbeing there MUST be a paradigm shift in the way we see ourselves, our connection to each other and to the world around us. No more must an inanimate object such as a pair of jeans or a car define who we are.
I believe that our government must put in place policies that enable everyone to achieve wellbeing through non-monetary means. The biggest impact I believe would be achieved through an overhaul of the advertising and marketing sector who have been telling us for decades that inanimate objects like cars, sunglasses, beverages will make us happy. This needs to end.
