‘Peak Consumer’

On Wednesday, whilst grazing on some brioche and making my morning tea I heard James Jones (bishop of Liverpool) speak on Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ about the awful and dated word ‘consumer’ (1 hour 49 on the today program if you want to listen again).

It reminded me of an article in Contagious magazine that i read by Grant McCracken about changing the term consumer to ‘multiplier’ in reference to Jerry Michalski

Im not sure about his particular suggestion but I do wince at the term consumer and think we should start seeding some more accurate and meaningful terms that might go some way to emulate the world of psychology where patients have become clients.

Its amazing just how insidious the word is, I find myself saying it without even noticing. I think the dilemma for the term ‘consumers’ really hits home when its tested against other social models currently gaining currency. How does Freecycle and skill sharing fit into the consumer model?

Im not economic expert but i think the new budget proves quite categorically that buying our way out of anything is nonsense. Have we reached the point of ‘peak consumer’ in the same way we have ‘peak oil’?

Andrew Simms talks about the consumer facade much more eloquently than i can here.