You clearly did not watch Elizabeth Warren’s lecture. I highly suggest you (and everyone else) take an hour or so to watch her presentation. She hits the nail right on the head.[/quote]
Another thing, that she does not go into. While some of those areas that have gone down in inflation adjusted dollars spent per segment. The average american is still buying more and cheaper quality items. So more cyclical consumption is done in areas like electronics and clothes – as well as more processed food. So all in all, more shopping is done.[/quote]
Agreed. This is what I often complain about when we hear of all the “benefits” of cheap goods. Those “cheap” goods come at a steep price — more environmental damage on the manufacturing side, more environmental damage on the end-of-cycle side (dumping/recycling), and we often end up paying *more* for the same use of these goods over time. If we are paying 1/3 of the price of an old widget, but the old one lasted 5X longer, then we are paying more and causing more environmental damage than if we build truly durable goods that cost more initially, but last much longer. Of course, corporate profits would shrink, so we’ll never see it unless someone forces it to happen.
