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Consumption and the Consumer Society
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Consumption and the Consumer Society Global Development And Environment Institute Tufts University Medford, MA 02155 http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae A GDAE Teaching Module on Social and Environmental Issues in Economics by Neva Goodwin, Julie A. Nelson, Frank Ackerman and Thomas Weisskopf This reading is based on portions of Chapter 10 from: Microeconomics in Context Copyright M.E. Sharpe, 2008. Reproduced by permission. Copyright release is hereby granted for instructors to copy this module for instructional purposes. Students may also download the reading directly from http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae Comments and feedback from course use are welcomed: Tufts University Global Development and Environment Institute 44 Teele Ave., Tufts University Medford, MA 02155 http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae E-mail: gdae@tufts.edu Consumption and the Consumer Society The average U.S. resident, in a year, consumes 275 pounds of meat, uses 635 pounds of paper, and uses energy equivalent to 7.8 metric tons of oil. Forty-five years ago, the average American ate 197 pounds of meat, used 366 pounds of paper, and used energy equivalent to 5.5 metric tons of oil. In the U.S., there is about 1 passenger car for every two people. Europeans have about 1 passenger car for every 3.1 people. Developing countries have, on average, about 1 passenger car for every 49 people. 1 What does economics have to tell us about these differences in consumption? Most introductory economics textbooks portray consumer behavior as relatively simple, rational, and untouched by social influences. Rather than focusing on choices made by people who live in social and environmental contexts, the “utility theory” view taught in such texts focuses on behavior that individual consumers would logically pursue, given certain assumptions. Such an approach leaves out a number of important factors which merit exploring. Download 0.61 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
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