The other day a wise woman said to me that the amount of money squandered on the pampering of pets is scandalous.
This scratched an irk that has been lurking in my mind for some time.
This irk was concretised by a recent article in the Summer 2025 issue of American Affairs by Peter Pilkington called The Limits of Consumption: Why Consuming More Makes Us Poorer.
It is quite heavy reading! What it said to me was:
We are told year in and year out that living standards are rising, but many people—especially younger people—can feel their quality of life decline as time goes on.
- quality of life is degrading as GDP increases, i.e. many are getting poorer and some disgustingly richer
- consumers are spending too much money on valueless crap
- education, health and housing industries have been artificially inflated to extract more money from consumers.
In the US since 2011, the number of housing units per person stayed roughly constant at around 0.425 – that suggests there should be enough houses.
But average household price has risen by 85% !!
Non economic measures show a large decline in quality of life in recent years, but economic metrics show it is increasing.
Surprisingly the homeless populations and deaths of despair are rapidly increasing.
It is time for economists to admit that their metrics are broken
Basing the economic health of people is based on outdated calculations
Big Pharma, Real Estate tycoons and Universities have found the keys to manipulating governments for money. They inflate their markets. This results in higher prices that consumers must now pay.
There is little value increase for huge price increases, called consumer deepening which has degraded quality of life for many.
The pampering of pets is just a symptom of the general malaise that has infected capitalism:
- consumers have lost their ability to see real value
- corporations manipulate governments to provide funding as economic policy
- white collar information workers are non-producing and increasing, while blue collar workers, who actually produce are disappearing
- large, entrenched and empowered DEI inspired bureaucracies
- the lack of willingness in politicians to challenge entrenched practices and bureaucrats
- ruthless production and marketing of valueless goods
Trump’s rampage in the US has targeted some of these problems. Let’s hope his initiatives are noted and adopted by all (hopefully with a bit more finesse…)
sillysocksonfriday 