Reflections and reviews: The costs and benefits of consuming

Abstract

Almost half a century ago, the social philosopher Hannah Arendt warned that advances in technology and the increase in free time were providing humankind with the opportunity to consume the whole world. That ⋯ consumption is no longer restricted to the necessities but, on the contrary, mainly concentrates on the superfluities of life ⋯ harbors the grave danger that eventually no object of the world will be safe from consumption and annihilation through consumption (Arendt 1958).