All We Want

We face a reckoning--the forces of consumerism are being powerfully confronted by the effects of a global pandemic and ecological crisis. In this book, award-winning author Michael Harris allows us to re-define "the good life" and envision new, more sustainable ways to measure our days.

All We Want will examine what the good life can be in a future where we must live with less. As the world faces mounting ecological changes, and consumer-oriented Western economies become increasingly unable to sustain the same standard of living and consumption levels enjoyed throughout the better half of the 20th century, a new way of thinking about our needs as consumers and about our place in the world as citizens and individuals is required.

Michael Harris wants to explore what these changes will mean for us, and how we might find meaning in a post-consumerist world. Through research and interviews with scientists, philosophers, psychologists and others, he aims to trace the "mechanics" of the "hunt for more" that characterizes consumptive activity, and to show how the promise of happiness endemic to consumerism has remained elusive. In its place, he explores three interrelated alternatives--craft, the sublime and care--that might better help us to live the happy, meaningful lives forever promised by consumerism, and to coexist healthily and responsibly with an ever more fragile environment.