Retail therapy

Dalton McGuinty, much like the Dubya before him, has urged his constituents to hit the malls.

Many people are "feeling the pinch" during the current downturn and are worried about their jobs and savings, he acknowledged.

But if they refrain from buying holiday gifts, for example, they could "unwittingly" add to Ontario's economic troubles, McGuinty said.

"I know we've got to take steps at home and we've got to be prudent and we've got to be careful and that's understandable," he said after visiting a pharmaceutical firm in Pickering, east of Toronto.

"But if you don't buy that car -- even though you can actually afford it -- if you don't buy that fridge, if you don't shop at Christmas time, it can actually put us in a bit of a downward spiral."

Obviously, the opposition has some objections to this recommendation, particularly NDP leader Howard Hampton.

Opposition parties pounced on McGuinty's remarks as further evidence the premier is "out of touch" with ordinary people who fear they'll soon have to join the unemployment line.

The premier's advice is "just as crass and bizarre" as U.S. President George W. Bush telling Americans to "get out there and shop" after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said NDP Leader Howard Hampton.

The criticism is hardly unwarranted, but it's also off-base. Under the current economic system, the only way to get out of a recession, or to slow the onset of one, is to spend. We need everyone rowing in the same direction, or growth stalls. The way we've got things wet up, a stall means a downturn. Growth, constant and without limits, is the only measure of economic stability, let alone success.

Hampton's right, in that people facing layoffs or pay cuts and rising interest rates need to keep their eyes on the future. But he's missing the bigger picture. McGuinty's advice, like Bush's after 9/11, is economically sound. What Hampton, and most of the rest of his critics, I'm sure, will miss, is that this recession is another symptom of a system that is fundamentally flawed.

Our current economic system is flawed in several key ways:

• It relies on a prosperity gap that is untenable, and also unpleasant, so we've done our best to send poverty overseas, and have done a helluva job.
• It fails to recognise the natural limits of a finite planet.
• It has been artificially sustained for nearly two centuries, by government support, the distortion of the market by advertising, the ghettoization of two thirds of the planet, and the artificial savings granted by cheap petroleum.

Buying more shit will not fix any of that.

Response from A Channel

As promised, and it has been cleared with the "Virtuous Consumer". I don't agree with everything she says, but I understand her position. I've told her so.

This is the original text; I have just made a couple changes to formatting for aesthetic purposes.

Hi Brett,

Your letter to A Channel was forwarded to me so I hope you don't mind me taking this opportunity to respond.

You might be surprised to know that you and I share similar views -- though I tend to come at it from a different angle.

Like you, I agree that our incredible over-consumption and depletion of resources is obscene and the horrifying reality is that those in the world least responsible for climate change will be the most negatively impacted by it. And before I conceived of writing The Virtuous Consumer, I struggled long and hard with a sense of total despair about where our planet was headed -- and taking me and my family with it. However, I came to the conclusion that simmering in despair and guilt was leaving me paralyzed and ill-equipped to take steps that might improve our plight -- or at the very least improve my family's and community's health in the short-term. I realized that the more I educated myself about what I COULD do -- alter my family's eating habits, avoid plastics that weren't recyclable or contained toxic chemicals, drive less and bike more, source my family's power from a green power provider, open windows and turn off the AC, refuse to purchase from sweatshops, avoid hormone-disrupting chemicals in plastics and personal care product, the list goes on and on -- the more empowered I felt. I also became aware that the more I did, the more I inspired those around me to take positive steps themselves.

Thus The Virtuous Consumer was created -- a tongue-in-cheek title aimed at an audience that is looking for answers to questions they've only just begun to ask. Of course, consumption isn't necessarily "virtuous" -- however, unless we move ourselves off the grid, grow our own food, generate our own power, etc. etc., we consume. The Virtuous Consumer guides people through making choices that are better. There is no black and white in the environmental world -- as we've seen with various one-size-fits-all "solutions" to environmental crises: ethanol, wind power, compostable plastics... However, there are better -- dare I say more virtuous -- consumer choices that absolutely can generate powerful change.

You and I both know that purchasing a bamboo cutting board over a plastic one (for example) isn't going to stop climate change in its tracks. However, by talking to a wide audience about the bamboo cutting board, I might get people thinking about what plastic is made from. It might get them thinking about deforestation for wood products. It might get them thinking about how far our goods have to travel (emitting greenhouse gases the whole way) to get to us. In short, it might get them thinking about the impact EVERY purchase we make has on the planet -- and take steps to reduce that negative impact.

I'm not going to get a Hummer driver to start taking public transit any time soon. However, I might be able to convince them to drive in a more fuel-efficient manner. I might get them to consider carpooling. I might get them to consider a hybrid or biking one day a week.

And there's no question that these changes can add up significantly when enough people undertake them. So I hope you'll consider that, while you're clearly farther along the trajectory than many, what I'm doing is nudging people's farther along the path. I often talk about buying second-hand. I often talk about purchasing fair-trade. And I frequently talk about buying less by citing stats that show how our increased consumption isn't paving a path to nirvana, but to increased debt and depression.

I appreciate the broader audience that the A Channel allows me to reach with my segment. I hope you'll continue to urge broadcasters and journalists to present news that highlights the severity of the climate change crisis. But I hope you'll also consider this: You have to meet people where they are...then take them where you want them to go.

Kind regards,
Leslie Garrett

virtuous@sympatico.ca
www.virtuousconsumer.com
www.thevirtuoustraveler.com

Virtuous Consumer

Written to my local morning news channel today:

I was watching this morning when your "Virtuous Consumer" came on air with "green" baby products.

I want to tell you first that the term "virtuous consumer" is at best a misnomer, and more likely deliberately deceptive. It's offensive. Consumption is the problem, it is not a virtue. It is also region-specific: while we in the West consume, the rest of the planet starves.

Second, the idea of the segment really IS offensive. it's irresponsible journalism to indicate to the general population not only that consumption is a virtue, but that these products actually help the environment. You're lying to your viewers. You imply that phosphate free detergent for the thousands of baby clothes they own or buying a few glass bottles will help. It won't. What would have helped most is not having the baby in the first place.

What's worse, you foster a false sense of responsibility in your viewers: If I buy these products, they think, I will be helping. I'm not preaching from some ascetic moral high ground here. I consume as well. But at least I have the decency to feel guilty about it, and to take steps to reduce consumption, rather than painting a thin green veneer on my selfish activities so I can feel smug about them. Green consumption is still consumption, and doesn't help the broader problem of resource depletion.

I'd like to see A Channel, and CTV more broadly, adopt a far more responsible attitude toward resource depletion and the environmental crisis. I shan't hold my breath.

Respond to this how you wish. I don't seriously expect you to pull the segment (or any of the other "green" product placements you do), to change the name or to start advocating for less stuff for all of us (I'm sure your sponsors would love that). Dismiss me as a crackpot or a crank, or an "eco-terrorist". I don't care how you react. It'd take more than one regional morning show to make a difference anyway.

I just thought you ought to know that at least one person sees through it, and cares enough to point it out.

I'll let you know how/if they respond.