PROSPERITY THROUGH WASTE

Press, Volume C, Issue 29536, 10 June 1961, Page 3

PROSPERITY THROUGH WASTE

The Waste Makers. By Vance Packard. Longmans, pp. It would be difficult to think of any group of readers who could fail to be entertained and provoked by Vance Packard. •‘The Waste Makers,” his latest best seller, describes the symptoms of a serious problem and illustrates them by startling entertaining examples. This, as always, Vance Packard does extraordinarily well. The underlying analysis of the problem itself and the suggested solutions are, as always, superficial in the extreme and do not bear examination. Wastefulness is part of the American way of life. Few People will care to challenge this conclusion after reading •‘The Waste Makers.” This is a symptom, the author asserts, of an underlying fundamental problem facing the American economy—the need to sonsume what it produces. The United States economy and its mounting productivity is dependent on the constant increase in consumption and any failure to do so is to invite a recession. The encouragement of increased consumption in the United States is in itself a problem because peoole already have so much. Nine in 10 homes already have at least one refrigerator, television set. and electric or gas stove. Seven in 10 homes have in addition a vacuum cleaner, an electric toaster and an electric food mixer. There are more passenger cars in the land than there are families. The suggestion is that the American economy can only be kept afloat by somehow keeping sales soaring in the face of a mounting saturation. This herculean task is in the hands of the “admen" and marketing experts. It is their task to sell what is produced.

Oddly enough, in spite of this analysis, the marketers are not the heroes of this book, but the villains. These are the men who in this "Throwaway Age” encourage their fellow-citizens to be more prodigal in their daily lives. True, they appear a little less sinister and all powerful than in “The Hidden Persuaders'* The author records with delight the marketers unsuccessful—but presumably patriotic efforts —away from the unparkable. multi-toned. gas-guzzling monsters towards the foreign small car. "There were clearly limits to the power to manipulate public taste.” the author of "The Hidden Persuaders” declares without so much as a blush. The hair-raising problems of increasing consumption in a saturated market is being tackled with astonishing ingenuity and energy. True, there appears to be occasional lapses into unscrupulous methods of salesmanship. These are all no doubt due to patriotic zeal. Admittedly. one of the exhortations to spend sound a little odd to those still effected with traces of Puritanism, not to mention those who paint their own house: “Why deny yourself?” "Men’s appetite for goods must be quickened and increased.'* “Every family needs two homes.” The marketers’ solution to the national dilemma lies in restyling existing products or altering the colour scheme so that older models will seem dated and less desirable; in “planned obsolesence." the manufacture of articles so that they break down about the time that the guarantee expires and the time payments are completed: and the encouragement of buying on credit. An interesting development in the credit line is the move by some department stores to

encourage teen-agers, fourteen years and over, to open charge-accounts parental approval not always needed. Such programmes by stores are of course designed “to give these young people experience in managing their budgets and to promote their early appreciation of good credit standing in their community.” There is an enchanting parable of the wise and foolish lovers reported from “sales Credit News” that will remind readers that the problem discussed is not wholly without relevance to New Zealand. The foolish lovers were those who decided to postpone their marriage and set out on a systematic programme of saving until they could unite and establish a home without going into debt. They were foolish, the periodical explained. because they missed a portion of the pleasure in living life together. Further, they ’’deprived the national economy of two or more years of family consumption.” The wise lovers were not deterred from immediate matrimony by having no savings. <Eighteen years was the most frequent age for girls marrying, they got married, and took their honeymoon. bought their house, furnishings and car, all on credit. These young people, it was explained, "stimulated production, created employment. increased purchasing power, raised the standard of living.” The result of so vigorous a response to the American economic dilemma, the author asserts, ’is a force-fed society with a vested interest in prodigality and no end in sight to the need for ever greater and more wasteful consumption. Against a background of diminishing resources, American life is becoming increasingly commercialised and thriftlessness and materialism rampant.

This .would seem to be the point where one could expect the author to reconsider the adequacy of his analysis of the American economic situation. Unfortunately, he presses on instead to offer readers the solution of a problem which is inadequately stated. It is not surprising under the circumstances that if the initial dilemma was economic, the solutions offered are purely personal. They bear a remarkable resemblance to the Moral Rearmament “party line.’’ Consumers must cultivate prudence and demand quality. Manufacturers must restore the pride in craftsmanship. We must all cultivate strong personal standards of good and evil, humility. and have a concern for other people, etc. The sentiments are quite unexceptionable. ’’Americans.” the author declares, “must learn to live with their abundance without being forced to impoverish their spirit by being damned fools about it.” Mr Packard’s solution to his analysis of the American economy as dependent oh increasing consumption is—decreased consumption. Americans are, he points out. ingenious and enterprising people and should be able to solve the problem of how to retain the status quo without undue adversity and without being forced into wastefulness. ‘‘The Waste Makers’’ is all good clean fun. but not exactly profound.