Decreasing, less consuming to live better? A report by Sophie Romillat and David Geoffrion for Special Envoy, 02 / 2009.
Sociologists call them “decreasing”, in France, more and more of them are refusing to consume more and more. They reject the spiral of consumer society. When the rest of the population thinks only of increasing their purchasing power, the decreasing prefer to work less, earn and spend less. It is not a question of throwing away everything they have, but of gradually reducing their consumption by adopting a thrifty lifestyle, based on the D system. A whole program which increasingly appeals to the French. Impossible to know the number of "decreasing" in France, but it is a real trend, a strategy of adaptation to the crisis less and less marginal.
The "decreasing" are not tight-fisted, but ecologists who favor system D. Concretely, they save energy, water, electricity and gasoline, limit their waste, they move as little as possible in car or plane, boycott supermarkets, eat organic food produced locally to limit transport and packaging. So who are these "decreasers"? What are their solutions to buy less and less, to limit their waste or to avoid the car?
Meet with those consumers who have decided to change their lifestyle. Alexandre lives in the suburbs of Paris, driven by a singular goal, to consume as little as possible. He spends his time tracking down waste. Bénédicte lives in a traditional tent in the Hautes Alpes, at 1 000 meters of altitude in the middle of nowhere. There is also a new generation of descendants, they are young, they live in big cities and they earn very well their lives. Like Audrey, commercial engineer in Lyon, who recovers the entire crates of damaged vegetables left by traders at the end of the market.
Learn more and debate about forums:
- Decreasing on Special Envoy: summary and debate. Is decay viable?
- The eco tartufferie: the green or the decreasing?
Bonus: the eco tartuffes. A video of the decreasing ones.
The ideas of this video are not defended by the Econologie website, but show the way of thinking of decreasing, see the debate: The eco tartufferie: the green or the decreasing?
Learn more and debate about forums:
- Decreasing on Special Envoy: summary and debate. Is decay viable?
- The eco tartufferie: the green or the decreasing?