Sublime

profit and money making to excess and self-indulgence.

An uncanny economy has emerged in which a secure, middle-class lifestyle receded for many, but the material trappings of middle-class success became affordable to most. In the 1960s, it was possible to attend a four-year college debt-free but impossible to purchase a flat-screen television. By the 2020s, the reality was close to the reverse.

The swap market just for used children’s clothing (0 to 13 years) is estimated to be between $1 billion and

Since 1975, the country has made substantial progress in improving energy efficiency. Energy expended per dollar of GDP has been cut in half. But rather than falling, energy demand has increased, by roughly 40 percent.

But there’s another strategy that really is inexpensive: the secondary market. In contrast to buying new, the recirculation of goods is an ecological and economic boon.

1970s, academic turned farmer Wendell Berry wrote about how economic success includes the hidden cost of depriving people “of any independent access to the staples of life: clothing, shelter, food, even water.”⁠14 What was once the riches of self‑reliance have become things with a price.

Recent statistics show that, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates notwithstanding, Americans making $50,000 to $100,000 give away two to six times as much of their money (in percentage terms) as people who make more than $10 million.59

In 2007, textiles made up approximately 4.7 percent of the annual municipal waste stream of 254 million tons, which amounted to seventy-eight pounds of textile discards per person.

As the cost of waste and resources increases, business can save money by hiring now-less-expensive labor and capital to save now-more-expensive resources.