Since the financial crisis exploded in Europe’s face in late 2008, life has changed. We only have to look at the economies of Greece, Spain, Portugal and others to see that the consumer lifestyle which the Continent embarked on in the mid 1950s just does not work anymore.

In 1955, a US economist and retail analyst published a paper entitled ‘Price Competition in 1955’ in the Journal of Retailing. His famous quote (abridged), reads: “Our enormously productive (US) 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 satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats – his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies. These commodities and services must be offered to the consumer with a special urgency. We require not only ‘forced draft’ consumption, but ‘expensive’ consumption as well. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing pace.”

The world will not change overnight, but severe government austerity measures in many countries have seen European people holding back on new purchases. But, even so, we are not paying the true price of what we consume on a daily basis.

Most of the items we consume are produced in Third World countries. The raw materials used in the manufacturing process are also extracted there and the people who put together cheap, synthetic goods are paid a pittance, while the Western consumer pays a fraction of the real cost of the item. If the world’s trade was actually fair, we would not even be able to afford a tenth of what we enjoy today… examples are coffee, jewellery, information technology and many, many more. Let us look at the conundrum in more detail. If a customer in Malta buys a shirt, what does it actually involve – given the bigger picture?

Production of goods involves extraction, manufacture, payment of workers, the cost of transport and the environmental price. Surely, the €20 we pay for a simple shirt is not enough to cover what it really, actually costs. Once we have bought the shirt, the concept of perceived obsolescence kicks in, it goes ‘out of fashion’ and within a couple of years, we dispose of a perfectly good garment. That involves the environmental price. That shirt contains chemicals and plastic buttons, all of which go back into the environment. We seem to think that it is out of sight, yet out of mind, but the reality is that the whole world is caught up in an unsustainable cycle. Recycling is not enough. The world needs to find a new economic model that focuses on more closed loop production, green chemistry, reusable energy, sustainability, zero waste (especially in terms of packaging), green communities, less ‘fashion’ waste and more self sustainability.

It is happening, even here in Malta. Recycling has taken off, but as we have said, it is not enough. There have been fledgling attempts at creating renewable energy. There has also been an attempt to encourage people to generate solar energy through funding schemes. But we have so much further to go. The first thing we need to do is change our mindset and make little changes and little adjustments. We can grow our own food, we could ask ourselves whether we really needed a new flat screen TV which is four inches wider than the current one. We could ask what goes into the products we use and ask ourselves whether we really feel comfortable in buying them. We could ask ourselves just what went into making that new pair of trainers we have just bought to go along with the three other pairs we have.

We need to change, and we need to change fast. Else, it will all implode when it is too late and we cannot change the outcome of the bigger picture. No wonder our economies are failing, they are just benchmarked too high and we are spending money which we do not have on things, and spending our whole lives paying back.