The Need for Broad Agreement about the Nature of the Change
The necessary transition from our current excessive consumption to a balanced one cannot be dictated by the authorities. If it were, we would only aspire to return to the present system as soon as possible. Only if the transition to balanced consumption is accompanied by a conceptual change throughout society, via extensive education efforts and support from the social environment will we comprehend that the change is to our benefit. After a short adaptation period, we will feel it, too.
In the global, connected world where everyone depends on everyone else, there cannot be a continuing discrepancy between our current egoistic, competitive, and manipulative connections and the laws of the new system. In the new world, there is no place for inconsideration, lack of concern, and absence of mutual guarantee. The new, obligatory connections between us will help us change the entire economic and commercial systems. For example, producers will stop creating needless products, and will not talk us into buying unhealthy food just because it is profitable. In an economy that reflects the value of mutual guarantee among people, private consumption will regain its sanity.
This does not mean that we will return to the pre-industrial revolution era, or that this process is to be imposed on citizens by the government. Rather, this will be a natural process that life itself necessitates, a process of regaining normalcy from an out-of-control consumerism into consumption that matches the connections among us in a global and interconnected world.