The Ethics of Overconsumption

The simplest theory of inherent human nature, derived from the Greek term, hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure. In its core, indulgence, gluttony, and the propensity for gratification, represent the innate tendency to seek luxury, circumventing pain. Nature has allotted humankind under the authority of two unrestrained powers, pleasure and pain, which serve as the primary forces that drive, or detain our decisions and verdicts in life. 

Overconsumption is defined as the act or action of consuming something to excess. Elation, enjoyment, euphoria, contentment, delight, ecstasy, exhilaration, satisfaction, joy, liking, relief, tranquility, and love, are all subject to the broad category of pleasure. These serve as impetus, determining our agency as society as a whole. Moreover, such features of human behavior have solidified their fundamentality, embedded in our pre-modern hunter-gatherer communities, as our needs source back towards the basic liquidity needs of humanity. In Jean Baurdrillards 1970 book titled “The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures”, Baudrillard asserted that the material abundance of the 20th century reflected “something of a fundamental mutation in the ecology of the human species”. Our manner of inhabiting the world appears to be that of a consumer, meaning that as a species, we are consumers. Consumption is not something that we simply do, but rather an integral facet in occupying the world as a society. 

We buy, we use, we dispose of. Not just a trend for convenience, but a systemic behavior rooted in our society. The inevitable denouement of products emerges peculiarly not from the gradual futility of the product as it diminishes over time, but rather from the alteration in environments which dictates its replacement or renewal. We do not replace our phones due to their inutility, but due to the reason that new apps and networks will not function with them. 

Kima Cargill, author of The Psychology of Overeating: Food and the Culture of Consumerism, establishes the concept of a “funnel of consumption”, in which the tendency to over consume relies on the extensive pattern of consumer culture and individual overconsumption, perpetuating such negative feedback loops. Imaginative Hedonism involves the intricate interplay between the ostensible insatiability of a consumer, which grounds itself in the desire to attain an excess, to achieve satisfaction (Colin Campbell, 1987). An imaginative hedonist seeks pleasure in inclusion of fictional façades, indulging in fantasy and ambition, enabled by the immediate gratification propounded by purchased goods. He or she seeks emotional pleasure through engagement with consumer goods, bathing in their potential to materialize satisfaction. Thus, consumer goods serve as a catalyst to achieve pleasure, stimulating the necessity to muse in dreams, thereby creating the anticipation for products which are not yet obtained. The desired goods not only morph into sources of enjoyment, but simultaneously induce a dynamic of longing to provoke demand for new products.

In other words, consumerism is ultimately driven by our environment, obliging us to be consumers, impelling us to the pursuit of overconsumption, driven by the complex desire of imaginative hedonism, compounded by the societal force that inhabits the world, urging us to consume, or overconsume. This creates the unattainable anticipation of products which are not yet in possession. 

This pursuit of exponentially multiplying satisfaction in our daily lives, does not alter individual behavior, but leaves an unfathomable footprint scaling entire societies. When comparing the human development index with the resource consumption, once a society achieves the high human development standard, they will incontrovertibly surpass the line of unsustainability. Total global extraction of resources from the earth has more than tripled in the last 5 decades, with speculations indicating a growth of 60% in the upcoming 25 years (UNEP, 2025). If every person in the globe was to deplete the resources with the same persistence as the US, we would need at least 5 earths to uphold our current lifestyles (UNICEF, 2023). 

The global waste problem can be shadowed towards the primary impetus, the problem of production. From a societal lens, the production has become so essentially ingrained that it is now more than accepted, but encouraged. Fueled by the unwavering economic expansion, coupled with the internal desire for more, has enabled the surfacing of a prominent driver of environmental erosion. We use a plastic bag for an average of just 12 minutes, before the unfaltering exercise of discarding it once again, taking over 1000 years to decompose (Plastic Oceans International, 2024). “Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility.” - E. F. Schumacher. Every product bought, is produced, and consumed within minutes, disdaining the underlying efforts of its creation and scathing environmental impact. As our insatiable societies’ demands amplify, yet, earth's ecosystems fail to supply the adequate number of resources necessary, struggling to replenish or even sustain such idealistic requisitions. 

To expand on this, overconsumption aggravates the disparity gap between affluent and poorer countries, contributing to the emergence of high production demands, inducing dire environmental and societal consequences. As the richer countries continue getting richer, the world begins to separate into two disparate blocs, known as the plutonomies, where the economy heightens by the large consumption of resources by the wealthy few, catalysting greater demands. Plutonomy has been identified in regions such as the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia (Makdissi and Yazback, 2015; Bakker and Felman, 2014) which all have large ecological footprints (GFN, 2014). This global imbalance raises questions about ethicality and leads to controversy regarding this sustainability in the long term. A study by Motesharrei et al., found two key features of collapse for advanced societies in the past 5,000 years – including the Romans, and Mayans, rooted primarily in ‘the stretching of resources due to strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity, and the division of society into Elites and Commoners’. However, some authors suggest that if inequality were to be reduced, this would proportionally demonstrate a decrease in aggregate ecological footprint. This raises the pivotal question, given the projected rise of population reaching up to 9.7 billion by 2025, regarding distribution of resources and wealth across nations, and its observed impact upon the national ecological footprint (Kenner, 2024). 

Overconsumption is no longer a problem in the unforeseeable future, yet an ongoing matter, ingrained in our societies, unfolding in real time. This mindless habit, doesn't just reveal consequences for our society in the present, but sets the foundation for a degraded future for our generations. Sometimes more is not better. Sometimes the greatest danger is the least visible. The threatening invisibility of overconsumption. 

Works Cited

Kemple, Brian. “On Consumers and Consumerism - Lyceum Institute.” Lyceum Institute, 12 Aug. 2024, lyceum.institute/philosophical-happy-hour/2024/08/12/on-consumers-and-consumerism/.

Kenner, Dario. Inequality of Overconsumption: The Ecological Footprint of the Richest. 2015.

Meule, Adrian. “The Psychology of Overeating: Food and the Culture of Consumerism.” Food, Culture & Society, vol. 19, no. 4, 29 Sept. 2016, pp. 735–736, https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2016.1235839.

Moore, Andrew. “Hedonism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, 2019, plato.stanford.edu/entries/hedonism/#EthHed.

Plastic Oceans International. “Plastic Pollution Facts.” Plastic Oceans International, 2022, plasticoceans.org/the-facts/.

UNICEF. “Over-Consumption in the World’s Richest Countries Is Destroying Children’s Environments Globally, New Report Says.” UNICEF, 23 May 2022, www.unicef.org/press-releases/over-consumption-worlds-richest-countries-destroying-childrens-environments-globally.

United Nations Environment Programme. “Rich Countries Use Six Times More Resources, Generate 10 Times the Climate Impacts than Low-Income Ones.” UN Environment, 1 Mar. 2024, www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/rich-countries-use-six-times-more-resources-generate-10-times.

Yani‐de‐Soriano, Mirella, and Stephanie Slater. “Revisiting Drucker’s Theory.” Journal of Management History, vol. 15, no. 4, 25 Sept. 2009, pp. 452–466, https://doi.org/10.1108/17511340910987347.