Consumption Quotes - Page 21

• Consumption is a social relationship, the dominant relationship in our society-one that makes it harder and harder for people to hold together, to create community.

  Juliet B. Schor

  People, Community, Together

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• When I was an adolescent, I was obsessed with having many commercial things, cars, clothes, stupid things. Now that I have all that, I understand that the superfluous things can turn to you into a very stupid idiot-type. In East Germany there were very few things, but there was also a feeling of solidarity that no longer exists. Now we are up to the neck in consumption, the ego, the individualism. Now before friendship, it is merchandise.

  Till Lindemann

  Stupid, Clothes, East Germany

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• The basis of bureaucratic rule is the poverty of society in objects of consumption, with the resulting struggle of each against all. When there is enough goods in a store, the purchasers can come whenever they want to. When there is little goods, the purchasers are compelled to stand in line. When the lines are very long, it is necessary to appoint a policeman to keep order. Such is the starting point of the power of the Soviet bureaucracy. It "knows" who is to get something and who has to wait.

  Leon Trotsky

  Struggle, Order, Long

  Leon Trotsky, (2013). “The Revolution Betrayed”, p.88, Read Books Ltd

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• The planets environmental woes tend to be overlooked as we scramble for the latest high-tech gizmos - and conveniently ignore their energy consumption.

  Sheherazade Goldsmith

  Environmental, Energy, Woe

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• ANARCHISM (from the Gr. , and , contrary to authority), the name given to a principle or theory of life and conduct under which society is conceived without government harmony in such a society being obtained, not by submission to law, or by obedience to any authority, but by free agreements concluded between the various groups, territorial and professional, freely constituted for the sake of production and consumption, as also for the satisfaction of the infinite variety of needs and aspirations of a civilized being.

  Peter Kropotkin

  Government, Agreement, Law

  Peter Kropotkin (2012). “Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings”, p.284, Courier Corporation

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• I have always been very much involved in the pseudo biological cycle of production, consumption and destruction. And for a long time, I have been anguished by the fact that one of its most conspicuous material results is the flooding of our world with junk and rejected odd objects.

  Arman

  Art, Our World, Long

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• We've become increasingly addicted to consumption of goods that we don't produce ourselves, and a lot of the manufacturing has gone overseas.

  Jimmy Carter

  Gone, Produce, Goods

  Interview with Andrea Useem, bigthink.com. November 30, 2010.

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• Unfortunately, once an economy is geared to expansion, the means rapidly turn into an end and "the going becomes the goal." Even more unfortunately, the industries that are favored by such expansion must, to maintain their output, be devoted to goods that are readily consumable either by their nature, or because they are so shoddily fabricated that they must soon be replaced. By fashion and built-in obsolescence the economies of machine production, instead of producing leisure and durable wealth, are duly cancelled out by the mandatory consumption on an even larger scale.

  Lewis Mumford

  Fashion, Mean, Goal

  LEWIS MUMFORD (1961). “THE CITY IN HISTORY”

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• We are talking about creating a legal framework to regulate the production, transit and consumption of drugs.

  Otto Perez Molina

  Talking, Creating, Drug

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• The result of a public that has a very high consumption rate and turnover rate is people listen to more music but spend less time with individual bits of music. It's made me more likely to put things up quickly and treat it more like a magazine instead of a novel.

  Trent Reznor

  People, Magazines, Individual

  "Trent Reznor and David Fincher". Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. September 27, 2010.

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• In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close knit communities, and our faith in God , too many of us now tend to worship self indulgence and consumption .

  Jimmy Carter

  Strong, Hard Work, Self

  Energy and the National Goals - A Crisis of Confidence, delivered 15 July, 1979

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• The individual produces an object and, by consuming it, returns to himself, but returns as a productive and self reproducing individual. Consumption thus appears as a moment of production.

  Karl Marx

  Self, Return, Moments

  Karl Marx (1973). “Grundrisse: Foundations of the critique of political economy”, Vintage Books USA

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• For carbon-neutral cities, there are things worth talking about in how our consumption patterns can change - sharing goods, etc. - but those are a fraction of the impacts of transportation and building energy use. If we need to choose priority actions, the most important things are to densify, provide transit, and green the buildings.

  Alex Steffen

  Talking, Cities, Impact

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• Current nationalism is merely the affirmation of the right of colonial elites to repeat historyand follow the road travelled by the rich toward the universal consumption of internationally marketed packages, a road which can ultimately lead only to universal pollution and universal frustration.

  Ivan Illich

  Frustration, Affirmation, Rich

  Ivan Illich, Lionel Rubinoff (1971). “Tradition and Revolution”, Macmillan of Canada ; New York : St. Martin's Press

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• The rates of soda consumption in our poorest communities cannot be explained by individual consumer preferences alone, but rather are linked to broader issues of access and affordability of healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods, and to the marketing efforts of soda companies themselves.

  Geoffrey Canada

  Issues, Effort, Community

  "NYC’s SNAP Sugary Beverage Ban Is the Right Idea" by Geoffrey Canada, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 18, 2011.

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• The Chinese do make vast quantities of wine for home consumption, but you wouldn't want to drink it yourself.

  Simon Hoggart

  Home, Wine, Chinese

  "Red Nose Day needs fewer celebrities and more mercenary task forces" by Simon Hoggart, www.theguardian.com. March 22, 2013.

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• Espresso consumption is an aesthetic experience,like tasting a vintage wine or admiring a painting.

  Andrea Illy

  Wine, Vintage, Espresso

  Andrea Illy, Rinantonio Viani (2005). “Espresso Coffee: The Science of Quality”, p.16, Academic Press

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• Don’t tax my income, tax my consumption.

  Bill Gates

  Income, Taxes, Income Tax

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• We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.

  Pope Francis

  Real, Men, Cfs

  "The Joy of the Gospel: Evangelii Gaudium". Book by Pope Francis, w2.vatican.va. November 26, 2013.

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• The employment of the poor in roads and public works, and a tendency among landlords and persons of property to build, to improve and beautify their grounds, and to employ workmen and menial servants, are the means most within our power and most directly calculated to remedy the evils arising from that disturbance in the balance of produce and consumption.

  Thomas Malthus

  Mean, Evil, Balance

  "Principles of political economy considered with a view to their practical application". Book by Thomas Robert Malthus, Book II, Chapter I, "On The Progress of Wealth", Section X, p. 430, 1836.

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• We need not seek our own best selves, and in the meantime we inoculate ourselves against the viruses of age and idealism, which, as the advertising agencies well know, depress sales and sour the feasts of consumption.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Depressing, Agency, Self

  "Waiting For The Barbarians" by Lewis H. Lapham, (p. 197), 1997.

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• In both rich and poor nations consumption is polarized while expectation is equalized.

  Ivan Illich

  Expectations, Poor Nations, Rich

  Ivan Illich, Lionel Rubinoff (1971). “Tradition and Revolution”, Macmillan of Canada ; New York : St. Martin's Press

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• Consumption is also immediately production, just as in nature the consumption of the elements and chemical substances is the production of the plant.

  Karl Marx

  Substance, Elements, Plant

  Karl Marx (1973). “Grundrisse: Foundations of the critique of political economy”, Vintage Books USA

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• The real problem is that we use too much oil. It's that simple and that difficult. If we truly want to reduce our vulnerability to high prices, the best way to do so is to reduce consumption.

  Richard Heinberg

  Real, Simple, Oil

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• In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

  Jimmy Carter

  Strong, Hard Work, Self

  Energy and the National Goals - A Crisis of Confidence, delivered 15 July, 1979

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