When Will The Vacant Lot Be Developed?

Submitted by tonyplant on June 14, 2006 - 14:04.

When I saw the rubble with the provocative question, "What happens when edifices of network TV are rubble and the vacant lot has yet to be developed?" I wondered if the same is true of lots of social conventions, like consumerism and hedonism. Both of them are valuable and have their strengths - but they do seem to be crumbling in their anecdotal strength with reports of a decline in shopping and doubts about the health impacts of binge drinking.

A number of social commentators lament the impact of marriage or relationship breakdown, particularly where children are involved. It seems as if we have crumbling edifices but lots of vacant lots waiting to be developed because we don't know what should take their place. What do we want? What do people need? Are these the same question?

I've been thinking about this because it's Carers' Week and although I've had a good response to the workshops that I've run, I've met a lot of carers who are angry about what has happened to their lives and the lack of support they receive. Some of the carers I met say that they feel like anachronisms. They are abiding by their understanding of family responsibility and loyalty and almost literally being beggared for it while being treated with what feels like contempt by many of the statutory agencies. SOme of them feel that they have traded in their desire for security and a fulfilling career for present discomfort, financial insecurity and worry about their own futures. Yet, what would happen to our social and healthcare systems if carers disowned their sense of obligation and responsibility (a question that I've asked before when wondering what is the cost of doing nothing?)?

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In praise of the volunteer consumer

Submitted by tonyplant on December 29, 2005 - 18:37.

Richard North has published a provocative piece arguing that Consumerism is virtuous. Similarly, Bob Friedland of the Center on an Aging Society argues that concern over the demographic time-bomb of paying for pensions and the health care of older citizens is overplayed. Friedland points to the virtues of economic growth in sparking

startling productivity gains. Even as the share of the population in the workforce has fallen, the output of each worker has more than offset the change. The result: Someone born in 1940 has experienced an 875 percent increase in his or her standard of living.(quoted in the National Journal: Must it be gloom and doom for the baby boom?)

However, it is interesting that neither author claims that this remarkable increase in our standard of living in the western world has been accompanied by an increase in happiness. Happiness and well-being are typically measured by indices such as personal satisfaction with life, the enjoyment of friends and family and feeling fulfilled by work or other activities. There are some life qualities that can not be transformed into commodities that can be traded.

Copyright 2005, Tony Plant Happystance Project

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