I think it’s already happening. Who would have thought Wal-Mart, that shrine of cheap consumption, would post disappointing sales in January? We hear about studies showing people are driving less because of skyrocketing fuel prices.

Like you say, less wasteful ways and decreased consummerism will come about not due to adherence to lofty ideals, but for the simple reason that, in an economy clearly headed to a recession, people will think twice before spending money they might need later for more pressing matters.

Mmm… interesting question, Rob.

A softer economy forces people to make choices and reign in consumption by modifying purchasing and/or behavior.

My sense is that most folks will cut back discretionary purchasing because they have to (“my credit card is maxed out so I can’t buy those heels”), not because it’s the greener thing to do (“the world does not need another pair of heels, especially in my closet”).

We will however hopefully see a shift to more ethical consumption in less discretionary, mainstream categories that offer green products at accessible prices (e.g. green light bulbs, fair-trade coffee), although one could argue that these decisions are being made for selfish rather than ethical reasons (“fair-trade coffee tastes better and doesn’t cost much more”).

Maybe there’s more hope on the behavior side due to the heightened awareness about how to live a greener life – e.g. car pooling, biking to work, turning out the lights, unplugging the cellphone charger. Even here I wonder if “green fatigue” is causing people to revert to lazy, dirty habits, especially ones whose cost is hard to quantify.

Maybe our best hope for more ethical mainstream consumption is the nagging (recession-oblivious) tyke in the back seat. Hold those feet to the fire, kids! If I were you, I would be pissed.

One of the ways to look at it is that there’s already a precedent for this, something that used to be core, mainstream American values. Coming out of the early-to-mid 20th C. (and before, ideas like thrift and reuse for both personal and larger societal good – Victory Gardens and the like – were pretty central. My grandmother and great-aunt never threw anything away, canned veggies, repaired clothing, etc. While this is certainly something that’s gone out of a lot of American culture, it’s still existant there in our cultural memory – and something with positive affect, something our beloved elders did. So perhaps there’s room for a revival on partly nostalgic terms – only this time, we’re also adding our shade-grown-coffee-ground-fed-compost to the garden.

JKD: This is a really good thing you raise, something I should have thought of but really hadn’t.

Oliver: It’s awesome to see you weighing in here because I know you take this stuff seriously. My challenge to you is: Don’t you think that at some point change depends on getting to people who don’t give a rat’s ass about what the “Green thing to do” is? This is what’s bothering me about a lot of the coverage on the trend and “green” blogs, is that it’s almost more important to them what’s the motivation than what’s the action. I take your point about the kid in the back seat, but that’s been true a long time, and the reality is, people buying conspicuously green remain a niche. I know you’re big on the whole growing LOHAS thing, but I am not so sure.

Ingrid: You’re getting at what I’m curious about, which is sort of forced thrift as a kind of gateway, like people have to have the kind of thrift that JKD mentions is hardly a new development, but maybe it can be sorta kinda rationalized as … green! Which contradicts a bit what I just said to Oliver, but hey, it’s my site, I can self-contradict if I want to, yes?

Let’s face it when it comes to consumption, we are kings at swiping credit cards before thinking about the repercussions. It’s become such a bad habit that when countries like New Zealand hear news of new regulations for fuel consumption for the year 2020, they laugh at us. I’ve lived for almost a decade in Phoenix driving a Grand Cherokee 450 miles a week and eating fast food. It never bothered me to spend $9,000 a year on fuel until I moved to New Zealand two years ago where fuel prices are $5.32 USD per gallon. That put a sudden stop to my driving days. Suddenly the bus system is this amazing service that most remember only at the end of the month when money runs out.

I guess what I’m trying to get to is that change doesn’t come from good will and common sense. It comes from absolute necessity and as a last resort. Just like catalytic converters were not installed on cars because it made sense, it was done because we needed to be able to breath the air around us. Maybe someday people will realize that it costs more to go out to diner at McDonalds than to drop by a store to pick up couple veggies and a piece of meat.

There is just not enough education on how to use money and credit cards wisely. That’s why people like Robert Kiyosaki make ridiculous amounts money by selling books to state the obvious. We were taught very early on that we need to make money to spend it on stuff. When it comes to main stream consumption, we’re sheep. Now that the economy turned south, people are being forced to review their priorities and buying a new car or the new hot item is just not as important as making the next payment on the house.