"A global bullshit industry recruits the values with which we'd like Christmas to be invested – to sell things no one wants"

Link to The Guardian

"The 2012 Greendex survey found that people in poorer countries feel, on average, much guiltier about their impacts on the natural world than people in rich countries. The places in which people feel least guilt are, in this order, Germany, the United States, Australia and Britain, while the people of India, China, Mexico and Brazil have the greatest concerns. Our guilt, the survey reported, exists in inverse proportion to the amount of damage our consumption does.

"This is the opposite of what a thousand editorials in the corporate press tell us: that people cannot afford to care until they become rich. The evidence suggests we cease to care only when we become rich.

"... Back in August, a most instructive row ignited within the Conservative party. The environment minister Lord de Mauley urged people to repair their gadgets rather than junking them. This, he argued, was necessary to reduce the amount of landfill, in line with the European waste directive. The Telegraph reported that 'the proposals risk alarming businesses that are struggling to increase demand for their products'. The Tory MP Douglas Carswell demanded to know:

"Since when do we need government to tell us what to do with broken toasters? … having ruined our prospects of economic growth, the Eurocrats now seem to be giving us advice on how to make-do-and-mend. The sooner we leave the European Union, the better."

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