Need to refocus

At the time of my grandparents, life was kind of a struggle. It often meant working 9 hours per day and six days a week to ensure a better future to the children. Last year my grandfather gave me my grandmother’s engagement ring and he told me he saved up money for one year and paid in instalments to get it. That old fashioned jewel was a source of pride and happiness for him and not only a sentimental object.

Our society teaches us to disvalue old objects and to buy new ones. In my future society I wish that, for example, fixing electronics that don’t work or offering (and not just buying) a second-hand product become a new norm. Unfortunately, today, you would more likely pay a new low-quality t-shit 3 euro than ask to a seamstress to fix an old one with the risk of spending more money and time. Buying “new” costs less than fixing the “old” but “you have to be rich to buy cheap products” said Joseph (another grandfather) because cheap products deteriorate faster over time. However, the reality is more complex than that and I question the way in which we value objects in general.

Nowadays we are constantly bombarded by commercial advertisements that make people buy more than they need, the cheapest they find or the fancier they can. They make them wishing to buy objects that will end up in a trash or in a basement within the year, to buy products that they cannot afford to portray another image of themselves, to buy cheap low-quality products that hide big ecological and social impacts.

In 2040 I see people living with less and giving more importance not only to second hand products but also to the relationship with the other and to the relationship with themselves. I see a Europe that disincentives product advertisements in favour of the promotion of “human services” that help us enhancing our mental and physical wellbeing. We will watch massive public campaigns on the TV channels, on social medias and on the street promoting the benefits of an healthy diet or the importance of being in a good physical shape for diseases prevention and slowing the aging. Psychological support will be free and encouraged not only to overcome personal traumas but also to achieve mindfulness. In 2040 I wish that all the consumers will be able to make more informed choices. Policies will promote not only the consumption of local products but will impose that prices take into account the indirect negative externalities (technical externalities). Consumerism will no longer jeopardise our long-term interests and the satisfaction of our self-actualization needs.

I think that in 2040 we will still live in a wealthier society than the one of our grandparents but if we want to live in a happier and more altruistic society, Europe should strongly encourage a new type of consumption.