Rethinking Consumption

•   Consumption is necessary for wealth creation via production.

  

  The two go hand in hand.

  But as a nation we produce less (northern wastelands) and therefore have been earning less (balance of payments), and have to borrow more (borrowing/asset bubbles), in order to consume.

  Only those with assets perceived to be growing (homeowners) can reliably consume and they are somewhat reliant on other people’s ability to buy their asset to underpin it’s worth.

  Basically without some urgent intervention, starting with the production of affordable housing and a religious of the economy towards production, this whole system will crash like railway mania.

• It is the basis of any economy:

  I provide goods or services that someone else wants, they buy it and in turn I buy other stuff. If that's a pyramid scheme, the pyramid pre-dates the Egyptian ones.

  Sure we don't manufacture widgets any more: that is done cheaper elsewhere. Instead we manufacture Telecoms, IT, Games, Media, Software, Medical devices, Financial Services, Healthcare, Education etc. and sell it around the world. The fact it is classed as "services" is irrelevant.