Is Pleasure An answer To How Much & What A Country can Truly Consume?
Mohit Arora
Part 3: Pleasure, under our series titled Oil, Taxes and Pleasure: The best mirror a country can hold to itself.
Why many seemingly poor countries have been successful in accumulating & sustaining very large populations over millennia? What may be the single largest factor that families are free to control… but it still erodes the savings of a country? Why lower-income families spend the money they don’t have while…the wealthy may be wasting what they have?
It is a culture of thrift versus excessive consumerism that simply explains this difference…?
No… that is an oversimplification & merely an effect… so what exactly is the cause that sustains the culture of thrift…?
Humans and many living beings are naturally thrifty… so it may be helpful to understand what reduces our natural thriftiness…? Is it simply a desire to enjoy or show wealth?
Is it just compulsive consumerism? Is it a response to things that are enticing & pleasurable?
Is it an unrecognized addiction to pleasure?
Or vulnerability to sense-pleasure? Or more precisely lack of sensual literacy?
What causes sensual illiteracy? Ask yourself why a range of objects from phones to cars to food are presented in a sensual way? While the pandemic is drawing a line between essential & non-essential consumption… unless the fundamental vulnerability of sense-pleasure is recognized… & addressed, excessive consumption & waste may simply grow back. So what are we referring to while speaking of nonessentials/waste? How much do we spend on these relative to our income and Government income? The global income per person is~$3000 per year… Let us get into how much we spend on pleasure-driven consumption.
At $ 15 trillion the size of nonessentials global market is more than the global tax collection of ~$12-15 trillion! Is an average person spending close to half his annual income on non-essentials?
While some of this consumption is only harm-less entertainment…is it unreasonable to assume that 20-80% across categories may be compulsive or …specifically uncontrolled sense-pleasure driven. Is pandemic a good time to hone-up our sensual-literacy?
We all know our senses are the gateway to our bodies and thus to our wallets… and our future…is it time to guard and strengthen the gates? By cultivating, practicing & establishing dispassion which is deep-coldness towards objects…so that switch to your pleasure is in your hand & not in others' hands. If an object triggers compulsive sensual thoughts.. think exactly opposite… again and again.
Frequently practice reducing the mind rolling in thoughts of visual objects, smells, sounds, touch & self-importance.
So that your senses become your friend and not an entrapment.
If unmoderated, will the consumption only breed selfishness & loneliness… that may eventually consume the consumer?
What else explains the inability of wealthy countries to reproduce? Reduced reproduction reduces the number of future taxpayers & the ability to repay massive amounts of sovereign debt. This further impairs the country’s ability to sustain a large population. Crystal-balling into post-pandemic future will the countries with higher sensual literacy be more successful & at lower geopolitical risk? And can the rest of the countries be helped to build higher sensual-literacy…? ---------------------- Come say hello on LinkedIn or twitter.
Originally published as art-grade animation on Beautiful Presentations Studio on LinkedIn
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