INTRODUCTION

Conventional, neoclassical economics is based on assumptions that, while yielding useful models for understanding the problems of efficient allocation of resources in the short term, are misleading and potentially dangerous in dealing with the long-term consequences of economic choices. This problem arises more specifically in evaluating the impacts of various policies that are proposed to promote ‘sustainable development’, because the temporal horizon of sustainability analysis is multi-generational. Sustainable development involves three hierarchically inter-related problems. These are maintaining (1) a sustainable scale of the economy relative to its ecological life support system; (2) a fair distribution of resources and opportunities, not only among members of the current generation of humans, but also among present and future generations (and even in some formulations among humans and other species); and (3) an efficient allocation of resources over time that adequately accounts for natural capital (Daly, 1990).

Over generations, the economy is expected to grow significantly in its material scale as a result of population growth and probably also as a result of the increasing expectations of consumers. As the scale of economic activity increases there is also, in general, an increase in the impacts of economic activity on the environment. This focuses attention on both population growth and the material consumption levels of advanced societies. In this paper the focus is on the material consumption vector, questioning whether there may be a social interest in influencing individual preferences toward less material consumption-oriented forms of satisfaction.