"Our enormously productive economy...demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption...We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever-increasing rate."

-Victor Lebow

This advice was delivered during the Eisenhower administration. The objective was a good one, viz. to sustain in peacetime the lively economy brought about by war production and avoid the devastation of economic depression such as existed during much of the 1930's, the memory of which was still vivid.. We have been doing a good job of consuming, burning up, wearing out and discarding and our standard of living is high. The mistake is equating standard of living with quality of life.

I wonder if Victor Lebow could have imagined just how efficiently his vision has been fulfilled. This giant consumption machine is unsustainable. It's time to find something else to base the economy on. Ever-increasing growth with no limit is called cancer when it occurs in an organism and it eventually kills its host.