The downside of reducing consumption

I was thinking about ways to reduce my consumerist footprint. I’ve come around to the conclusion over the years that I don’t need to buy and collect movies. I rent movies right now, which is good, but I thought I could reduce that even a bit by downloading movies — legally of course. No, really. There are websites out there that provide this service for a nominal fee.

At any rate, at first I was thinking how great an idea this was. I’m reducing the number of DVDs that have to be manufactured (I mean, of course, if an appreciable number of others were to take the same approach), ergo reducing the extraction of material from the earth, and the pollution and all of that. All I have to do is have a hard-drive, which, I assume, is a wiser investment in materials than the stack of DVDs that it would replace over time.

But then I got to thinking down the chain and it turns out that this approach runs counter to  a couple of my other goals:

1. It would reduce my opportunities for interacting with people and building community, since I wouldn’t have to venture outside to get a movie;
2. It would reduce the need to employ people at the video rental store, thus having a detrimental effect on the local economy and employment, resulting in a degradation of overall happiness.

So… by attempting to reduce my consumerist footprint in this way I would be undermining the local economy.  The irony is that on initial inspection, the goal of reducing material use appeared to be admirable and “good”.  But as far as our society goes, this act performed on a large scale would, in fact, be detrimental for our collective interest in maintaining local employment and commerce.   Obviously, here we have a case where the needs of our economic system are at odds with the needs of the environment.  Actually, I think it is probably safe to say that all of the needs of our economy are at odds with the needs of the environment, which is really quite a depressing thought.  How can we have built a system so wrong?

And which way will I go on this?  Well, I’m part of the machine.  I’m a member of this society and am obligated to eat within the context of the ways in which our society allows us to procure food.  I have to go with supporting the local economy and not downloading movies or promoting that approach.  On the plus side I will gain (or retain) happiness as a side-effect of supporting the community.  In all of the reading I’ve done on this topic, that’s how it works.  And our current trend of steering away from community involvement is having a dramatic negative effect on our overall happiness as a society.

But is there a way to have one’s cake and eat it, too?  Can we reduce consumption and still have a vibrant economy?  Not with this kind of an economy, I think.  There must be a way, but it will likely require a change in mindset and a change of infrastructure.  I’ve read reference to something called a ‘service-based’ economy that might have something to do with this.  Also, there is the notion of ‘Cradle to cradle‘ design/manufacturing, which is definitely about this that I believe is gaining some traction.  There is a book on that that I intend to pick up once I get through my current stack.