Are you a "POMER"?

Blogger Don Arthur has coined a new term for a rising segment of society - the “Post-Materialist Consumer” or POMER for short. These folks have bought into the notion that unfettered consumerism and constant demands for “stuff” do not bring happiness and are damaging to the environment. The paradox is that they are earning and spending as much if not more than many of the consumerist souls they so earnestly criticise. How can this be?

They are concerned, even anxious, about doing all the right things for the right reasons, but find their expenditures ratcheting up as a result. How does it happen? The three main areas that contribute are:
  1. Choosing a home location to minimise commuting and buy time for themselves
  2. Buying services (e.g., organic foods, farmers market produce, fair-trade products, etc)
  3. Buying “moral necessities” that make them feel they are making the family safe and sheltered (e.g., heavier car with multiple airbags)
Listen to Don Arthur in an interview clip on Radio National’s Counterpoint program of Monday 22 June: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/counterpoint/default.htm

[Thanks to Malcolm and Judy Dispain for the link.]