People don’t need enormous cars, they need admiration and respect. They don’t need a constant stream of new clothes; they need to feel that others consider them to be attractive, and they need excitement and variety and beauty. People don’t need electronic entertainment ; they need something interesting to occupy their minds and emotions.
I found this passage yesterday in “Limits to Growth. The 30-Year Update” by Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows and Jørgen Randers. It seems to me as if it contained at least a partial explanation for the existence of what I’ve called the TESCO society: while pursuing the fulfillment of our primary nonmaterial needs we let blend ourselves by the possibility (which actually is not one) to satisfy them through a “much, cheap”.
That is sad – but, on the other hand, it makes hope that we can change.
The Sceptical Economist 