Power To The People! How Economic Choices Create Political Capital - CleanTechnica

The article "Power To The People! How Economic Choices Create Political Capital" on CleanTechnica, referencing Lloyd Alter’s November 2025 Substack post, critiques modern consumer culture and its environmental consequences. It highlights how continuous consumption, driven by economic systems reliant on fossil fuels, leads to excessive waste and environmental degradation. Alter uses the example of Heather Mitchell, who keeps her six-year-old Samsung phone due to financial constraints, contrasting this with business perspectives that view such frugality as harmful to economic dynamism. This tension underscores a broader societal push for ever-increasing consumption, rooted in a system that equates economic growth with the relentless production and disposal of goods. Drawing on historical and contemporary economic thought, the article emphasizes that the economy fundamentally depends on converting fossil fuels into material goods, which perpetuates environmental harm. Alter argues that this dependence explains political resistance to renewable energy and public transit investments, as these alternatives do not fuel the consumption-driven economy in the same way cars and fossil fuels do