1. Peter Wenz, “Environmental Virtues:Consumerism and Human Flourishing”
Prepared by Andrew Jeffery for PHIL 102 “Contemporary Moral Problems.” November, 2015

2. Basic Theoretical Outlook: Virtue Ethics.
Thesis 1: “No conflict” (actually synergistic complementarity) between:
Anthropocentric concern with human virtues and human flourishing, and
Ecocentric concern with environmental protection.
List of traditional virtues: frugality, appreciation, temperance, self-development, dedication, benevolence, generosity, empathy, and justice.

3. Definition of ‘Consumerism’
Not identical to consumption of goods and services, rather—
“the ideology* that society should maximize consumption without limit**.”
*i·de·ol·o·gy (noun): a system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. **Implying a commitment to an ever-growing economy, with ever greater and greater consumption

4. Four Theses about Consumerism
Consumerism harms the environment.
Consumerism harms poor people in the Third World.
Consumerism harms industrial people.
Consumerism promotes recognized vices, whereas traditional virtues promote not only human flourishing but also environmental protection.

5. Consumerism Harms the Environment
Consumerism dominates American politics. Nearly every conservative, moderate, and liberal presupposes the economy must continually grow, nobody advocates a sustainable steady-state, much less a shrinkage of the economy, were that what it would take to reach sustainability.
Global warming.
Predominantly driven by consumer preferences for inefficient vehicles.
Extinctions due to acidification
Pine plantations, driven by demand for larger houses
Acid rain from burning sulfur-rich fuels for energy

6. Consumerism Harms Poor People in the Third World
Thomas Friedman’s Consumerist Utopia
Why Friedman is Wrong
The whole world cannot consume at the level of citizens of industrialized nations.
Friedman misses the difference between anyone being able to prosper and everyone being able to prosper.
Globalization actually harms many people in the Third World.
High-Yield Varieties, intended to help the Third World by producing more food (at a profit for multinational corporations), require more water than many of those Third World countries can supply. Deeper wells lowered the water tables, causing the poorer farms to dry up.
Likewise HYVs require artificial fertilizers poor farmers could not afford, and made bathau, a wild plant and valuable source of Vitamin A, a weed threatening cash crops. Herbicides brought in to kill bathau deprived thousands of Indian children of their main source of Vitamin A, causing them to go blind!
Logging interests and other industrialization efforts have laid waste to forest ecologies in Thailand , the Amazon, and elsewhere, benefitting those countries’ GDPs at the expense of traditional peoples depending on the forests for their subsistence.
Growth in child prostitution as an unintended consequence of the desperate poverty and social disruption brought on by integrating traditional societies into the consumer-oriented global economy.
Global warming is expected lower the growing soil moisture in the world’s topical and moderate breadbaskets.

7. Consumerism Harms Industrial People
Consumerism fosters perpetual discontent. To have a perpetually growing economy, there has to be perpetually growing demand. Marketers are thus incentivized to continually persuade people they have needs they didn’t know they had.
To enable ever-increasing consumption, consumers must work ever-lengthening hours, leading to greater and greater social isolation.
Social isolation leads in turn to increasing depression.

8. In Sum, Consumerism does not foster human flourishing.
Gary Gardner, the director of the Worldwatch Institute notes “the failure of advanced industrial societies to deliver widely their most hyped product: well-being, or happiness.”

9. Consumerism promotes recognized vices (The “7 Deadly Sins”)
Lewis Mumford (1956): Consumerism embraces six of the traditional “Seven Deadly Sins,” excepting only Sloth.
Greed – “the unlimited desire for more”
Avarice –”an inordinate desire for wealth”
Gluttony—”excessive food consumption”
Envy—resentful desire for what belongs to others (?)
Pride—self-esteem measured by possessions (?)
Luxury—ostentatious display of superfluous goods connected to pride*

10. Other Vices promoted by Consumerism
Intemperance—lack of moderation or restraint
Selfishness—insufficient regard for the welfare of others, including indifference towards others (the poor, the community, the environment, etc.), and especially:
Indifference to the plight of the poor who produce the products we purchase.

11. Traditional Virtues oppose consumerism and promote human flourishing
Frugality—making the most of what you have, having a high joy-to-stuff ratio
Appreciation—enjoying what you already have, which counteracts envy and avarice.
Temperance—classically explained as “desiring what reason approves,” knowing when you have “enough”—rational consumption
Self-Development—time not spent working to acquire stuff you don’t need can be spent acquiring skills and knowledge.
Dedication—long-term commitment to the same projects decreases consumption
Generosity— a virtue facilitated by avoiding overconsumption
Empathy— promoted by the possibility of generosity

12. Traditional Virtues and Environmentalism are Mutually Reinforcing
So the traditional virtues valued by the anthropocentrist because they foster human flourishing, are pretty much the same virtues the eco-centrist should seek to promote for their value in protecting the environment.

13. Practical Implications
Should people practicing these virtues be expected to behave differently from most other people in our society?
Wenz invokes the “Principle of Anticipatory Cooperation”—deviate from consumerist norms in the direction of the ideals one aspires to, but not to the extent that this deviation impairs, instead of promoting, flourishing.

14. Questions
Is consumerism an essential part of capitalism? Could there be an ideology of free enterprise without consumerism?
“Luxury” is actually an archaic word for Lust, while Wrath, one of the original “7 deadly sins,” seems to have been omitted from Mumford/Wenz’s list. Considered as vices, could Lust and Wrath also be tied to Consumerism?
Which of the traditional virtues opposed to consumerism are the most important and useful to develop?
Are there virtues not considered by Wenz that are also opposed to consumerism? How are Thomas Hill’s virtues of Humility and Self-Acceptance related to the virtues Wenz considers?
Explain Wenz’s “Principle of Anticipatory Cooperation.”