Hello fellow readers! We hope that you have enjoyed last week’s posts which introduced intriguing innovations in combating pollution 😀 Welcome back to this week’s theme as we delve into the importance of government and community efforts in mitigating pollution stemming from consumerism.
But What About Boosting Consumption?
Before we understand how these actors can provide the adequate framework to incite change in consumption patterns, let us first acknowledge that there are always two sides to a coin. As aptly noted by Queloh (2009), governments are prolific marketers. Alongside the proliferation of information through advertisements and agency websites, governments are armed with fiscal policies to stimulate consumer spending (Queloh, 2009). Such policies could be in the form of tax cuts, relief grants, and even vouchers – as seen from the $100 SingapoRediscover Vouchers to be issued by the Singapore Tourism Board in December. Efforts to stimulate consumption are often attributed to the need to sustain and/or promote economic growth as consumer spending accounts for a significant proportion of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as seen in the table below (Global Economy, 2020).
Consumer spending as part of GDP can range as high as over 80% in countries such as Albania and Argentina (Global Economy, 2020). However, there are exceptions too, with Singapore’s consumer spending only accounting for 31.12% in the second quarter of 2020 (Global Economy, 2020). This doesn’t come as a surprise as our relatively lower population size is unable to sustain high levels of domestic consumption.
Apart from consumer goods, consumer spending also accounts for essentials such as healthcare, but nonetheless, the prevalence of consumerism fuelled by governmental policies is worrying.
Power to Incite Change
Given the influence that the governmental agencies have over consumer behaviour, perhaps policies to encourage sustainable consumption should be enacted to alleviate the consumerist culture. This can be achieved through several means and oftentimes require enlisting non-governmental organisations to engage with consumers on the ground. In our following posts, we shall embark on a journey to understand how collaborative efforts between these different actors can result in unprecedented successes.
Till next time! 😀
References:
Global Economy, Consumption as percent of GDP by country: the latest data. Available from: https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/consumption_GDP/#:~:text=Household%20consumption%20is%20about%2060,over%2080%20percent%20of%20GDP. [Accessed 22 October 2020]
Queloh, J. (2009). How Governments Can Boost Consumption. Harvard Business Review. Available from: https://hbr.org/2009/05/how-governments-can-boost-cons [Accessed 22 October 2020}
Images:
Global Economy, Consumption as percent of GDP by country: the latest data. Available from: https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/consumption_GDP/#:~:text=Household%20consumption%20is%20about%2060,over%2080%20percent%20of%20GDP. [Accessed 22 October 2020]