Consumismo e crescita demografica / Consumerism and population increase

Consumerism and population increase The paper provides an overview of the position of the Catholic Church on the question of consumerism and in particular addresses the problem that if it is ethically correct to earn money, is it ethically correct to consume more than what it is strictly necessary? In order to answer this question, by using the classical distinctions of investment and consumption and productive and unproductive consumption, it is argued that some expenses usually regarded as superfluous do not necessarily fall within the concept of consumerism. Having singled out the main conscious or unconscious motivations for consumer behaviour, the negative effects are analysed from an economic perspective along with the close ties linking consumption, demographic expansion and long-term world development. The paper concludes that the principal cause for this phenomenon is the limited degree of cultural and ethical maturity of modern societies, placing the responsibility for this squarely with information providers and opinion makers.