How Much Is Enough? (Worldwatch Environmental Alert Series)

The consumer society has become an all-consuming force in modern life. Since World War II, retailing analyst Victor Lebow declared that our economy demands consumption as a way of life, turning buying and using goods into rituals for spiritual satisfaction and ego boost. As a result, the affluent fifth of humanity has adopted car-driving, television-watching, mall-shopping, and throwaway buying habits. This shift has had a profound impact on the environment, with devastating consequences. The irony is that while consumerism has harmed the planet, it has failed to provide people with a sense of fulfillment. Instead, it has created social, psychological, and spiritual hungers. How Much Is Enough? explores these issues, asking what level of consumption can the planet support and when do more things cease to add appreciably to human life. Alan Thein Durning's book is the second title in the Worldwatch Institute's Environmental Alert Series, tackling the pressing questions of our time with eloquence and thought-provoking insight.