The problem

THE World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002 concluded with the statement that, ‘Fundamental changes in the way societies produce and consume are indispensable for achieving global sustainable development.’ This collective acknowledgement of the problem of consumption, central to resolving hurdles in the path of a sustainable future for consumers, was the beginning of the tide turning against consumerism.

There is no denying that consumption is what sustains life, but the 20th century brand of consumerism, flourishing in the northern half of the world, and mostly in the US, underscores that consuming too much, or consuming in an ill-informed manner, can undermine both personal and planetary health. Developing nations were expected to avoid the consumption mistakes that had been made earlier, but again it appears that each one has to learn through making one’s own mistakes, and that suffering and poverty cannot be eradicated through following the example of others.

A consumerist culture is what has to be lived through, its bitter harvest eaten and digested, for any enduring lessons to be learnt and imbibed. It was barely a decade ago that President Bush urged his fellow Americans that it was their patriotic duty to go out to the malls and ‘buy’! Statistics thereafter reveal that more and more countries and their people joined the ranks of consumers who view and define their life through a consumerist lens.

The consumer class is now global, of that there is no doubt. Rising incomes and a growing middle class, with its prosperity and aspirational overreach, has contributed to an accelerated spread of a consumer class in the 21st century, from the developed to the developing world. Currently China and India, together, are adding to the global consumer class, though their consumption graph remains far below that of the developed nation consumers. By some estimates, the insufficient consumption levels of developing nations is as great a problem as the excesses of consumption and the resulting waste generated by developed country consumers. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted annually. Some countries consume and waste much more than others; according to the Barrila Centre for Food and Nutrition (BCFN), the total amount of food wasted in the US exceeds that of the United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden, France and Germany combined. Alongside an ever escalating population graph, the real challenge facing humanity is the possibility of consumers from the developing nations aspiring to match the consumption levels of the developed nation consumers. What this might result in is a daunting and somewhat scary prospect.

For economists across the world the number 32 measures the difference in the general lifestyle and consumption levels between the developed and developing world. The consumption level of the northern half remains at 32, whereas the rest of the world veers more towards one or a little above. Compounding these problems between consumers and their consumption is how all this irreparably impacts the global environment and its resources, an expression of their irresponsibility. Non-biodegradable packaging, its disposal and advertising, are other dimensions of the consumption profile that need to be acknowledged and tackled. Spreading social unrest and a rising graph of violence across the world is being interpreted in the context of consumption, either in terms of quality, surfeit or even deficiency.

A mere twelve per cent of the world’s population in the northern hemisphere consumes more than 60% of the world’s resources. These not only come from the southern half, but are also made for consumers in the northern half of the globe. Consequently, these choices significantly contribute to environmental degradation of the planet, which is home to everyone, whether consuming more or less.

Thus, when considering the question of consumer responsibility, southern consumers too should be prepared to assume responsibility for the degradation in the quality of life of all consumers. After all, their governments (whether democratically elected or otherwise), not only trade away the resources that their own populations require for a healthy and dignified life, they are also willing partners in the manufacturing, processing and packaging procedures, which ultimately jeopardize the health and well-being of everyone across the globe. The corporations compound the problem by colluding with governments to mislead consumers into making hazardous consumption choices through manufactured misinformation, which is disseminated to all consumers, everywhere, with the help of another willing partner, on the lookout for a quick buck, namely the media, through advertising. Technological advances and scientific developments, controlled either by the corporates or the government, often in partnership, further add to the befuddlement of consumers.

Yet each one passes the buck, and responsibility is not fixed. Consumers have rights and responsibilities, and they should be exercising both, through the redress mechanisms created to fight on their behalf and voluntary organizations, willing to guide and protect them. Their children are exposed to consumer education in their curricula and awareness drives via the informal streams of education. So how come consumers are as misguided and cheated and defrauded as they are? Is it because of the multifarious, ever inventive and enticing ways that manufacturers and markets devise to cheat and defraud consumers?

But are consumers really the easy targets that they are led to believe they are? The greatest consumer folly is vested in consumer hunger for ready access and convenience of easy use and disposal, for which they trade away almost anything – their hard-earned money, their health, the future of their children and, of course, their common home – planet earth. This behaviour is easier to comprehend in the context of rapid urbanization across the globe, where time starved consumers desire easy availability, the consequences be damned! Consumers actually support hazardous and destructive industries through their consumption choices whereas, together, all stakeholders – be it governments, businesses, or citizen/consumers – can and should use their purchasing power to steer markets toward making and delivering safe products.

Through much of the 20th century consumer perception equated plenty and abundant accumulation of material goods with the good life, but half a century later the earlier patterns are being questioned. Asia currently accounts for 3.6 billion people or roughly half of the world’s population. However, what really confounds all calculations for the Asian brand of consumers, are their spending habits which are frugal, to begin with, and sustainable to boot. Cultural moorings must account for this emerging pattern in the spread of consumerism in the Asian region.

Well entrenched philosophical and living patterns have moulded the collective unconscious of the Asian populations to not only eschew waste, to save, recycle and reuse all products, but also to respect life and nature. Asian cultures do not place humans atop the consumption pyramid. All natural resources are not perceived as the tithe that ecology must pay to humans at the cost of other living entities of the planet. Widespread non-aggressive and non-violent approaches as well as vegetarian preferences can help keep the consumption graph in control, despite increasing populations. Poverty, and consequent lack of means to splurge and waste, helps in checking the urge to be a spendthrift, or to catch the consumerist malaise of ‘I shop, therefore I am.’ The US might house only 5% of the world’s population, but accounts for guzzling more than 50% of the world’s resources and contributes to tipping the ecological balance against humanity.

The growing middle class Indian consumers display a sophistry that can only be explained in the context of their cultural values. Indian consumers spend proportionately more on their children’s education and in bolstering their children’s future prospects than elsewhere. They are also great savers, thus contributing to the rise and spread of the banking and insurance sectors in India. Consumers are encouraged to open bank accounts, to save and invest wisely. Nationalized and cooperative banks protect the interests of consumers in need of empowering support. Simpler forms of mobile banking are also spreading across India as the use of cellular phones multiplies. Clearly, illiteracy or lack of education does not appear to present a hurdle where advanced technology is available to the rural and ‘urban poor’ populations. According to a Wikipedia estimate, out of a total population of 1.2 billion, as many as 861 million or 71% (as of February 2013) consumers have access to cell phones, a number increasing rapidly.

Viewed in the context of the larger pattern of consumer behaviour, rural Indian consumers are not very different from their urban counterparts. The markets are hard at work to erase the rural-urban divide and technical and scientific advances make it easier for them to do so. Nevertheless, the rural consumer profile, though generally believed to be placid, is actually volatile, swiftly adapting to changes in developmental advances, but at a different pace in different regions. Though only a quarter of rural households have access to potable water and less than half have electricity, the sale of consumer durables and non-durables are catching up. Access to urban spaces, as well as the spread of literacy, is helping to change the occupational profile of rural consumers. Thus, a ‘mixed’ economy of sorts, where agriculture is no longer the primary means of livelihood, is fast emerging. Tractors and various other machines are replacing the earlier devices, and a commute on the bus is more common than on a bullock or horse drawn cart. Television, cellular phones and computers are bringing awareness of the larger world to rural populations, thus changing the pattern of their consumption choices, with an ever eager market waiting to provide them just that.

Rural Indians are also beginning to match the familial profiles of the urban consumer, and working wives are no anomaly amongst rural populations. The increasing economic independence of rural Indian women is rapidly changing their locus standi in the social structure. Rural India also has as many rich households as urban India.

It is the huge gap between the very rich in urban India and the below poverty line consumers in rural India which somewhat queers the pitch, because the rest are more or less comparable. As the middle class and upper income group proliferates in the rural sector, it will considerably add to consumer numbers, blurring the differences in consumption preferences faster than they are being understood, either by manufacturers or markets.

Human habitats, or cityscapes in urban spaces, have no scope for dealing with the aftermath of spiralling production and consumption processes. Indian cities are living examples of this conundrum where apparent development and environmental problems like air, water and soil pollution make consumer lives unhealthy and jeopardize the sense of well-being, despite an increase in purchasing power. Our ecosystems and natural environmental spaces are making way for human homes, as agricultural farms, factories, malls, golf courses and similar manicured ‘green’ spaces proliferate. (WWF’s Living Planet Index shows a 35% decline in the earth’s ecological health since 1970).

The rise and spread of a consumer culture in the US and European countries in the second half of the 20th century, has created a common world in which we all live and suffer. Currently, the rise of the Asian consumer, namely Chinese and Indian, threatens to accelerate the pace of global problems which are already dangerously poised to plunge the world into chaos. Consumerism literally ‘consumes’ all in its wake – companies, national and transnational, governments of all ilk, the environment, economic balances and ultimately the populations or the consumers. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that global food production accounts for 70% of fresh water use and 80% of deforestation. Food production is also the largest single driver of biodiversity loss and creates at least 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Patterns of mass production and consumption devour all, without respect for any of the earlier established cultural and sustainable ethical or moral boundaries.

Who is responsible? Consumers, of course! Consumers engage with food at various stages of its growth, consumption and disposal. In addition, the cultural contradictions and heterogeneity of the Indian population cannot be ignored. Per capita income of most Indian consumers is relatively insignificant, but their contribution in numbers to the size of the markets cannot be ignored. Indian consumers continue to combine tradition and modernity, thus proving a challenge for the markets designed to serve a uniformly aligned set of developed country consumers.

India also has the youngest population profile: ‘India has close to ideal demographics. It’s in a sweet spot,’ notes Robert Prior-Wandesforde, director, Asian economics research at Credit Suisse. ‘As the population’s working age expands, savings increase – and that turns into a source of funding for investment. This will be beneficial for the country’s competitiveness as other countries age.’ India’s young population in different income segments and locations influence their parents’ spending, as some of them are also beginning to earn money through part-time or full-time jobs, arising out of opportunities that did not exist earlier. A Gallup poll of more than 30 countries showed that with an average workweek of 50 hours, India ranks among the hardest working nations globally.

India’s young population is poised to be almost 34% of the Indian population and larger than the total population of America by 2020. These children are neither direct buyers nor do they have any purchasing power, yet every big name in industry is trying to woo them with special products and innovative selling schemes. India is a nation obsessed with children. Indian parents are willing to sacrifice their present in the hope that the future of their children would be better and more comfortable than their own. In an average middle class Indian home, at least 35% of all household expenditure is earmarked for children, their education and recreation. Does that mean the middle class Indian consumers have the best interests of the future generations in their purview, besides being the greenest consumers in the world?

The National Geographic 2012 Greendex (a worldwide tracking survey of consumer choices and consumption patterns), lists Indians as the greenest consumers in the world. There is no doubt though that nature, women, youth and the rural populations, need to be accommodated in any planning for a sustainable, healthy and meaningful life for India’s ‘tomorrow’ consumers. These categories of consumers need specific solutions, guidance and direction for future plans.

In his book, Consumerism and the New Poor, Zygmunt Bauman delineates a shift from a society of producers to a society of consumers in modern times. Central to Bauman’s analysis is the notion that today’s societies are integrated around consumption rather than production. ‘Freedom’ in consumerist cultures means freedom to choose (one of eight consumer rights), and the freedom to satisfy individual desires, defining as well as constructing consumer identity under the sway of the market. This must change, and it will, if there is an information base which inspires consumer confidence. Bauman further proposes that the move from a society of producers to a society of consumers has left the poor of this world without a ‘useful function’. This is specifically applicable to Indian rural consumers migrating to urban areas, where they are converted from ‘skilled artisans’ to ‘unskilled labour’, creating major upheavals. According to Max Weber, these ‘traditional workers’ – working on the principle of ‘as and when’ in the cities, and just long enough to meet their immediate and limited needs – find it extremely difficult to fit into factory routines. ‘Traditional workers do not understand the working for work’s sake principle. These traditional workers when forced to become consumers are thus traditional consumers.’ They buy things, not because they are aggressively marketed and/or enticingly on offer, but because they need them. This, though, is fast changing under the unrelenting pressure of urban consumer markets and their strategy to convert ‘citizens into ‘consumers’.

It is becoming increasingly clear that ‘green’ lifestyles must combine an access to traditional or cultural knowledge, an understanding of current issues, and use of science and technology. The ‘delinking’ of consumers from environmental resources, which is the hallmark of a market economy, must be understood by consumers and actively resisted. In the Indian scenario, future planning must provide for environmental solutions which transfer power, give control to and create wealth for the consumer/user. A sustainable and green form of consumerism also must restore and endorse community living because sustainability depends on preserving ‘certain aspects’ of nature, cultural beliefs and rituals shared by people.

Arthur Clarke noted that: ‘This is the first generation that thinks much about the future, which is a bit ironic, since they may not have one.’ Further, that the views of young people, whether about the present or future, are important because their perceptions will shape the future, the world they will inhabit, the lifestyles and values they will adopt, and the ways in which they will shop. By understanding the behaviour of tomorrow’s consumers, green options need to be explored and developed for them to become available. It’s not about dealing with dead data. By understanding how emerging lifestyles and cultural changes are likely to impact on future consumers, a safe and healthy lifestyle can be provided for future consumers by today’s consumers, policymakers and markets. Any serious plan for ‘greening’ the future requires all stakeholders to rebuild a sustainable relationship with environmental resources so that not only are the needs of the present generation met, but those of the future generations are also taken care of.

ROOPA VAJPEYI