Consumption in today’s world is at an all time high even with the economy suffering. Jeff Dardozzi discusses Jevons’ Paradox or the rebound effect by saying that when there is an increase in the efficiency of a resource, there tends to be an increase in the rate of consumption of that resource. This is because if there is a decrease in the demand for a resource, this lowers the resources cost and then a new demand for the resource occurs and there is a huge increase in the consumption of the resource again. A second part to this rebound effect is that when there are improvements in efficiency, you save money but end up spending it and putting it right back into the system. In the end everything just rebounds back and forth. One example of the rebound effect is if say for instance people stop driving their cars because gas gets too expensive and begin taking other means of transportation. Then, since no one is using or buying cars, their price drops and now its worth having a car because the money you save on purchasing it balances out with the amount of money you will spend on gas. This in turn increases the demand for the cars again and people can purchase even more than before because there so cheap. A second example of this is if people stop using a lot of metal to build things because its cheaper to use more wood, then the price of metal will drop. Now that the price of metal is so cheap people might start using to make more cars or more buildings, driving up the demand for it again. It is simply an endless cycle.
Today, there is a huge emphasis on consumer spending. This is a “social norm”. If you have a lot of money or even just enough money you should spend it to show others of your wealth. The bigger the better, and advertisers are always trying to reinforce this. Also, when people consume a lot it feeds into the economy. In times of economic crisis, like the time were living in now, governments will give out rebate checks to try to stimulate the economy. By doing this they are giving people more money to spend and to put back into the economy. There are other strategies to this as well, for example today there is the first time home buyer perk. If you buy a home for the first time you get a certain amount of money back. Instead of putting this money towards the house they just bought, a lot of people spend this money on other goods, feeding the economy. If people stop spending so much the economy could greatly suffer and lots of businesses may no longer exist. If there’s not enough money going in there’s not enough money coming out.
In Dardozzi's essay, he makes a reference to Adam Curtis and his four-hour BBC documentary Centruy of the Self (2002). He explains how corporate America has transformed into a “sea of selves.” To me, I believe this means that America has become so concerned with ourselves that we forget the true meaning of a community. Although it is our “freedom” to do things for ourselves and succeed for our own benefit, we forget that looking out for just ourselves all the time may not be the best strategy. If we are all just a “sea of selves” no one can work together to get anything accomplished. As the famous saying goes "two heads are better than one", and I think that this really is an accurate statement. Everyone wants to be known as the best, but maybe we could be known as the best together rather than alone.
Dardozzi also references F.G. Bailey and his Tactical Uses of Passion (1983). Bailey describes that there are five aspects of human culture and these are tactical, moral, silly, civic, and divine. These govern the dynamics of which a social group operates. Bailey describes civic and divine as being at the center of social groupings. He describes these as the social aspects of our personalities. Civic is the set of rights and responsibilities that bind an individual and divine is something greater than one’s self and activites of a collective nature and are significant in realation to the world. In other words, this is basically saying that your civic duty is the right for you to do something for yourself while your divine duty is to do something for others and the world. For example, if you know your actions will effect only you in the long run you are more quickly to act than if you know your actions could effect the entire world and you would be solely responsible.
Personally I think that Dardozzi’s essay is really rather depressing. Its hard to imagine that we are stuck in this rebound effect and there’s not really a way out. Although he concludes his essay by stating “The path out of the paradox is through a renewed civic and spiritual life where the central discourse is how to be in the world, and this is the basis of legitimacy for overturning the current reality. It happens to also be the same path out of the social and ecological catastrophe that lies beneath our feet.” He really seems to not have much faith that this will ever happen. However, as depressing as it is, I believe his essay is true and makes a lot of really great points. Although the answer “lies beneath our feet” its hard to get even one person, let alone the whole world to see this. Today in society we are so caught up in our “social norms” that we forget about the differences. As we talked about in class, if we see something that says something like 80 % of students at SUNY Albany don’t drink more than twice a week, we don’t think about the 20% that do. Also a study was done in hotels where two signs were put up. The first sign said "HELP SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT" followed by some information about the environment and the second sign said "JOIN YOUR FELLOW GUESTS IN HELPING TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT" followed by some information about how many people reused their towels. Compared to the first message people who saw the second message increased their towel reusage 34%. Overall, people want to be doing what others are doing. They want to be what they think is "normal", they don’t want to be the outcast (with a few exceptions).
The issues addressed in Dardozzi’s essay really are a great example of what our society has come down to today but changing this would be an extremely difficult thing.
Veterans day is a holiday devoted to honoring our veterans. Those who fight in the military do it not only for themselves, but for the greater good of a larger group. They are living for a community rather than for their individual selves. When you are in any type of military theres no “you”, you are a part of a group. Today verterans day has turned into a day with huge sales at the large department stores and car dealerships trying to get buyers to consume more. This relates exactly to Jevons Paradox. We create a holiday to honor those who are actually making their way out of the paradox by working together rather than alone and turn it right back around. People often forget that even today there are people risking their lives over seas just so we my don’t have to feel the effects of the war here. Just recently a friend from my hometown was killed overseas in a Humvee accident and another of my good friends just shipped out on November 4th. Sometimes we forget the real sacrifice these people are making as a group, just to make our lives better as individuals. Should we really take advantage of this just for some measly sales? A lot of times people say others forget the true meaning of holidays and this really is the truth. This veteran’s day we should forget about landing a good deal on a cheap new pair of cute boots, and really celebrate those who have fought and are fighting together to protect us.
- The Spector of Jevons' Paradox, Jeff Dardozzi
- Social Norms: An underestimated and underemployed level for managing climate change, Griskevicius, University of Minnesota, Cialdini, Arizona State University, and Goldstein, University of Chicago
- Century of the Self (2002), Adam Curtis
- Tactical Uses of Passion (1983), F.G. Bailey
No comments:
Post a Comment