The fleeting joys of consumption

[Michael McIntyre]

Brad, have any of the economists you know engaged with Jon Elster's argument that consumption is an "opponent process" (something that over time gradually moves from an act motivated by utility to an act motivated by avoiding disutility) while self-realisation through activity in which utility is essentially a by-product have the opposite characteristic?

Hell, I'm being obscure - let me just quote Elster directly.

"The pleasures of consumption tend to become jaded over time, while the withdrawal symptoms become increasingly more severe.  The consumption activity remains attractive not because it provides pleasure, but because it offers release from the withdrawal symptoms.  Conversely, the attractions of self-realisation increase over time, as the start-up costs diminish and the gratification from achievement beomes more profound.  There are economies of scale in self-realisation, whereas consumption has the converse property."

[J. Elster, "Self-realisation in work and politics: the Marxist conception of the good life," in Alternatives to Capitalism, ed. J. Elster and K. O. Moene, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1989, 134-35]

Michael McIntyre