ABSTRACT
Economics is the study of how supposedly insatiable wants can best be met, given that resources are scarce. As a number of basic wants are now approaching saturation, and further expansion of private consumption is increasingly spurred by “rivalry” rather than genuine needs (Layard 2005), it is high time to reconsider the conventional economics of consumer demand. This short chapter is just a start, probing into a vast new territory. On the basis of a brief description of long-term trends as well as more recent tendencies of private and public consumption development, the main challenges for an unconventional consumption policy are identifi ed and discussed. Is the main idea of the welfare state necessarily counterproductive?
