/biz/ - Business & Finance

[Anonymous No.788430]

How much of the economy depends on consumerism? As in, what would happen if people suddenly started buying much less of what they didn't need? I don't mean we go back to the 1800s-throw-nothing-away-bricolage-making type of society, but what would happen if people kept their phones for five years instead of two, drove their cars until they stopped running, and only bought what they needed (in the sense of not buying what you have plenty of)?

Mainly wondering as far as unemployment and salary (relative to cost of living) is concerned.

[Anonymous No.788456]

>>788430
Revenue of the good producing corporations would go down. Probably by a lot. In turn, demand for raw materials would also go down.

[Anonymous No.788469]

>>788430

this is a very complex issue, and there is no short answer

but a shrinking consumer economy yields a shrinking in consumer innovation demand, shrinking research demand, stagnating technology, stagnating enterprise optimization, which makes it harder for new businesses to emerge, which causes a linear corporation size/employee count relationship, which means that more people will be working to achieve less.

in short, it would mean going back to the dark ages (with modern technology ofc). I mean nothing short of incredibly intense religious dogma is gonna bring this about.

if you want a case study, look at the prosperous arabic nations, and imagine what would happen if you took away their foreign labor force.

[Anonymous No.788477]

>>788430
Everything would just slump. Consumerism is a several centuries old engine that requires fuel from the consumers and from our environment. Is it sustainable? Probably not. I'm not going into hippy bullshit but if people continue to overuse our already limited resources, everything just might go to shit in the end. At our current rate, the global economies are almost completely dependent upon consumerism, kind of brought upon by the U.S. since the Cold War started.