ThirstyFish

In the modern world, our current economic system is "central" to every aspect human life, both at a personal and at a political level. Capitalism dominates life. But capitalism requires constant growth and in a finite world we are bound to hit certain limits. All signs are indicating that we are rapidly reaching those limits. And yet, we're doing nothing to slow things down. On the contrary...

Lewis Mumford saw that this machine of growth would resort to whatever it can to sustain itself. Mumford talked about devices such as "consumer credit, installment buying, multiple packaging, non-functional designs, meretricious novelties, shoddy materials, defective workmanship, built-in fragility, or forced obsolescence through frequent arbitrary changes of fashion" that keep us spending. That last one is interesting: "obsolescence through frequent arbitrary changes of fashion". When pink-orange shoes go out of fashion, what will happen to "those shoes"?

Song of the Day: Those Shoes - Eagles (1979)