I see headlines and articles discussing how consumer spending is driving, or of late, possibly slowing, the economy. But if not for people buying non-essential products and services, what else would drive the economy? Everyone needs food, shelter, and clothing. Many need cars, depending on their location. But I take it that spending on necessities is not enough, especially non-consumable or long lasting things like houses and cars.
In: Economics
We’re a post scarcity industrial society. We don’t all need to work in order to produce enough for everyone. I think Right now, about 40% of labor is actually necessary, even with our high standards of living. The exact proportion doesn’t really matter, only that it is decreasing as technology gets better.
infinite retail/service craziness is one way of finding enough work to let everyone have jobs. Consumer culture is a bad side effect of this, but it’s a lot better than some of the alternatives.
An UBI would be another way to let everyone have resources without running into a “too many cooks” situation. I don’t think we’re quite there yet: out gdp/capita is 76k, and the poverty line is like 15k. I think the ratio has to get up around 10:1 before an UBI starts to becomes viable.
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