Voluntary Simplicity, Dematerialization and a Shift in Values
There is a market for socially conscious consumerism. More and more people around the world from all walks of life are reexamining dominant assumptions of the modern world that automatically associated more economic growth and complementary to this increased consumption with greater and greater levels of happiness. This argument for a reevaluation of this strategy only gets stronger when we see the negative environmental and social trends associated with conspicuous consumerism and materialism.
What is the definition of profit and value? How much is enough? Western value systems to equate this terms with financial measures of success. However indigenous cultures like Yoruba and others have a more comprehensive definition of value creation that including social, cultural and spiritual measures of well being. The question a groups of resrearchers in the US asked is does economic growth improve human morale? The answer is that in USA Europe and Canada the correlation is surprisingly weak. While happiness is lower among low income people, Ronald Inglehart says that once comfortable money provides diminishing returns (Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society P243 1990). Out of 49 people 4 in 5 said “money can increase or decrease happiness depending on how it is used (Ed Diener, J. Horowitz and Robert Emmons “Happiness among the Very Wealthy” Social Indicators 1985 P16).”
People have been are ready to shift away from consumerism and materialism for quite some time. Duane Elgin in his 1980 classic Voluntary Simplicity says “Significant majorities place a higher priority on improving human and social relationships and the quality of American life than on simply raising the standard of living (From Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich, by Duane Elgin, page 128-134).” A Louis Harris poll entitled “Quality Wins Over Quantity,” concluded back in 1977 that 79% to 17% place greater emphasis on “teaching people how to live more with basic essentials” than on “reaching higher standards of living,” and that76% to 17% prefer “learning to get our experiences from non-material experiences” to “satisfying our needs for more goods and services.”
Work by SRI International of Menlo Park, CA 94025 in a bulletin of social transformation entitled Leading Edge, Vol.1, No. 1, Summer 1980, concluded that there were three main groups in American society:
Need-driven consumers (11% in 1980) (‘These are persons living at or near the poverty level. Their lives are preoccupied with the struggle to make ends meet.’)
Outer-directed consumers (69% in 1980) (‘For the most part, they live according to the expectations of others.’)
Inner-directed consumers (20% in 1980) (‘idealistic, spiritually inclined, ecologically oriented, and experimental in their manner of living and consuming. This group consumes according to their inner sense of what is appropriate rather than relying upon prevailing fashion or the expectations of others as their primary guide.’)
Jeff, later statistics (2002 or 2003, maybe 2004 by now) are to be found at www.lohasjournal.com – look for survey results.
Socially Conscious Consumerism
Corporations particularly those in the food sector are realizing that health conscious inner directed consumers (what Paul Ray has popularized as the term cultural creatives) are starting to accumulate significant buying power. These types of inroads are now important ways to gain market share in market economies and this is once small health food companies are being snapped up by huge food conglomerates like Dean Foods. Such markets increasingly revolve not around not on the status that consuming the products confer, but on the sense of well being, satisfaction or the experiences one gets from consuming them—hence the term experience economy.
Socially Conscious Investing
Cultural creatives now account for 30% of the U.S. population and as they mature they are making more investment related decisions. This might have something to do with the rapid growth in socially conscious investing. Today 1 out of every ten dollars is a invested in a socially responsible security.
Business are now being pressured on two levels through demands on the part consumers and investors who have deep concerns about the way current business practices affect the world around us. Businesses have an opportunity by shifting their strategies towards to affirm the values of these emerging socially conscious markets gaining markets by focusing on business development that promotes and expands the scope of sustainability in the global society. Central to this process is the creation of economic value that increases the availability of sustainable livelihoods validating the intrinsic worth of the people served by the corporations whether as worker, investor or consumer.
Regardless of the compelling information that expresses a sense of urgency about the adverse impact of modern development on the natural and social commons, there has to be a compelling market rationale in order for business to shift their strategy and particularly for IT companies to commit to a path of development and marketing that supports sustainable development. The long term emphasis is on dematerialization that is a shift away from consumption and towards a service-oriented economy that provides people with better services to improve the quality of their lives.