Overconsumption

Whether one can speak of overconsumption and what constitutes notions of excess depends on whether consumption is assessed from the consumer's point of view. The answers depend on whether consumption is assessed from the consumer's point of view (the “self-regarding” perspective) or from another point of view (the “others-regarding” position). The self-regarding perspective can be stated as follows: “Is my consumption behavior really good for me?” whereas the “others-regarding” perspective can be stated as “Does my consumption behavior harm someone?” Following Thomas Princen, a negative [Page 325]answer to the first question would better be called “misconsumption,” reserving the term overconsumption for patterns of consumption directly or indirectly incompatible with other people's welfare. However, both those defects matter for sustainable development: misconsumption because it raises questions ...