The metal was probably mined in South Africa. The petroleum was probably drilled in Iraq. The plastics were probably produced in China. And maybe the whole thing was assembled by some 15-year-old in a maquiladora in Mexico. 4 dollar and 99 cents won't even pay the rent for the shelf space it occupied until I came along, let alone part of the stuff guy's salary who helped me pick it out or the multiple ocean cruises and truck rides pieces of this radio went on. That's how I realize I didn't pay for the radio. So who did pay? Well, these people paid with the loss of their natural resource base. These people paid with the loss of their clean air with increasing asthma and cancer rates. Kids in the Congo paid with their future. 30% of the kids in part of the Congo have dropped out of school to mine coltan, a metal we need for our cheap and disposable electronics. These people even paid by having to cover their own health insurance. All along this system, people pitched in so I could get this radio for 4 dollar and 99 cents. And none of these contributions are recorded in any accounts book. That's what I mean by the company owners externalize the true costs of production.

And that brings us to the golden arrow of consumption. This is the heart of the system, the engine that drives it. It is so important that protecting this arrow has become the top priority for both of these guys. That's why after 911, when our country was in shock and President Bush could have suggested any number of appropriate things: to grieve, to pray, to hope. No. He said to shop. To shop! We have become a nation of consumers. Our prime identity has become that of being consumers, not mothers, teachers, farmers, but consumers. The primary way that our value is measured and demonstrated is by how much we contribute to this arrow, how much we consume. And do we! We shop and shop and shop. Keep the materials flowing and flow they do. 

Guess what percentage of total materials flow through this system is still in product or use 6 months after the date of sale in North America. 50%? 20%? No, 1%. 1! In other words, 99% of the stuff we harvest, mine, process, transport, 99% of the stuff we run through this system is trashed within 6 months. Now how can we run a planet with that level of materials throughput? 

It wasn’t always like this. The average U.S. person now consumes twice as much as they did 50 years ago. Ask your grandma. In her days, stewardship and resourcefulness and thrift were valued. So how did this happen? Well it didn't just happen. It was designed. Shortly after World War Two, these guys were figuring out how to ramp up the economy. Retailing analyst Victor Lebow articulated the solution that's become the norm for the whole system. He said: “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption… We need things consumed, burned up, replaced, and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.”