Just to divert the topic a bit
It seems that the death of consumerism is near and that corporations are adjusting to a permanent deflationary environment.
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-could-grow-revenue-iphone-subscriptions-annual-upgrade-2015-12Consumer products will be subscription based aka leased not owned. That is good news I think environmentally-wise as that will spell the end of planned obsolescence
I think corporations will lease subscriptions plans based on product iterations. That will effectively mean that consumers will formally reuse products through official channels and when products reach end of life they (hopefully) be return for final recycling and dissasembly.
I know some of you will think that its eerily too close to central planning, but I think it will be a good compromise. And the only way imho to make it work in a deflationary environment.
Why? because subscription based products effectively count as implicit pre-ordering therefore reducing the risks in the production pipe-lining and helps minimize (depreciating) inventory and stock.
To be honest, in a way, it is beneficial for there t be a subscription/sharing economy instead of a consumerist economy. Things like Uber just solidify the idea that this is happening.
We do not need to purchase every single thing under the sun, nor do we need to produce so any products that will likely never be used, or used for a small period of time.
This is also very beneficial as we now have low-wage workers in many parts of the world, and, as seen in a different article I saw somewhere, $45,000 a year in annual income is becoming poor. The ability for these low-earners, as stupid as it may seem that they earn a low amount, to be able to rent out devices or other materials for a period of time relieves some stress as they will be able to return the items as soon as their subscription is over.
This is a fairly ingenuous idea, but it can bring its own issues. I wouldn't say I'm a socialist, but I think this offers a good compromise between capitalism and socialism, enough to appease both ends of the political spectrum.
