From The Consumer to the Conservation Society?

Last time I looked outside, the sky was not falling. All of the extra, unneeded retail stores are closing. I see fewer shopping bags strolling through the malls. Maybe instead of shopping, people will find recreation at the beach or the park. Unfortunately the talking heads, print media and yes the Internet can project the pruning of our economy as a catastrophe. After all, bad news sells. Well if you lost your job, your home, took a beating in your 401K, you have had a lot of bad news. There is always dislocation and destruction, during a recession that forces most of us to make changes to survive the storm.

The good news...I am looking forward to what we transform into after the blatant failure of the consumer-driven economy. Will we become the conservation society? If we buy less, eat less, waste less, start saving, conserve on energy, go back to school, go to school, the economy will change. Are we on the verge of redefining an American dream that includes less stuff? Has there been enough pain to generate that kind of change?

It seems to me that the country that makes a genuine commitment to conservation of resources, doing more with less and discovering/implementing alternative energy solutions will emerge as a global leader in the 21st century. For making this kind of change, we will all have to go back to school. We will all have to learn new habits, new skills with the hope that we can gain employment. However, if we need less because we have determined how to get more out of fewer resources, life might turn out pretty good for most people. And when you consider that Americans on average use 5 times the energy per person than most countries there is a good chance that we can take what we already have left and learn to live in style.

So that puts higher education in the front of the cart as the new main engine of production. Production of ideas. Production of thinking people. But will it be higher education as it exists today? That is a question worth exploring.