The Irony of Consumer Spending On Veterans Day

Jevon's Paradox is the belief that there is a problem with increasing the efficiencies of energy technologies. The problem herein is that when people save energy with more efficient technologies, they're actual energy usage increases. For example, with the increased efficiencies of the new compact fluorescent light bulbs. We may think now that we are saving money and energy with these light bulbs and it is therefore not as important to turn the lights off. Another example of this paradox would be when we save money on clothes at a discount store, we buy more of it because it is so cheap compared to in the department stores. Ultimately we are buying or "using" more energy. What I mean by this is that the energy used to create the clothing, whether it be people or machine energy. In the end we are using more energy. Ultimately this is the rebound effect and what is talked about in this Jevon's technological paradox by Jeff Dardozzi. There is so much emphasis on consumer spending in the U.S. and other places because our economies are based upon an ever expanding, limitless economy. Basically if we as consumers stopped spending, the economy would take a downturn and there would be chaos. Our lifestyle is based on a cyclic play of buying goods and services in order to sustain ourselves and others. Our"selves". In the article aforementioned Dardozzi states how Corporate America has turned us into a "sea of selves". We are all self motivated and self driven. We do things for ourselves and our own success in society. We do not function as a group. We do not function on behalf of the bettering of our homo sapien species. In due course it will be seen that society functioning this way is training us to fail. People are greedy and do not care about a person on the opposite side of the world. We need to change our way of thinking. If we believe that we belong to a group, which we do, the motivation for change will grow. F.G. Bailey spoke on the notion of the civic and the divine. He is stating how we must change our thinking to the notion that we have a responsibility, a duty to our "group". While the divine is a little different in that it eludes to the fact that we are a part of something greater than the individual and the activities of us as a group are important to the health of the earth.

I personally believe this essay has some very good points in that we do need to stop this paradox from continuing forever. Endless consumption cannot end up good on an earth with finite resources. However I also believe that alternative energy sources make it somewhat okay to use higher amounts of energy in terms of electricity as long as we are producing it responsibly. I also concede that not everyone has solar panels on their house or wind turbines in their backyard, but if at some point in the future this is possible, I don't see a reason to slow down or stop this paradox. I know I have some conflicting points here, but I feel like in a sense for the purpose of saving our earth, we must change our collective acts as human beings, but I also see some wiggle room. For finite energy resources, we need to work to cut out our energy consumption, or just our consumption in general. Whereas in the future I believe there will be a time when our nation has to and will be fully powered (electrically) by sustainable energy resources and at this point it would be alright to increase our energy usage.

How is Veterans Day related to this? You may be asking yourselves this question and I don't blame you, but Veterans Day is a holiday we celebrate annually on November 11th. We celebrate because an Armistice was signed to end World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. We celebrate the people who gave their lives, they gave everything to be apart of something greater than themselves. Veterans day is "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace." This day signified a day in our human race's past that we came together for a cause. We united for peace and our soldiers were the one's fighting for it. Ironically however we find Veterans day to be a day of mass consumer spending and sales as Corporate America once again turns us into a "sea of selves." The concept in itself is ridiculous. It should be a day of reflection on a purpose. A common goal that we human's shared. It was the soldiers in our military force that realized their "divine" responsibility to be part of the greater good instead of a bystander. On Veterans Day we remember these people.