Introduction

The Consumer's Dilemma — Share your ideas on how to get more by using less

Our growing consumer economy generates mountains of waste, encourages a frantic pace of life, pumps carbon into the atmosphere, and pushes many of us into debt.

But at the same time, the U.S. economy — in fact, the global economy — depends on consumer spending.

President Bush reminded the American public after 9/11 that even shopping was an exercise in patriotism. And so it seems: Small dips in consumer sentiment can send markets diving.

Our Consumed series asks how long the American consumer economy — and the American consumer — can keep it up. Can we continue growing and growing?

What are your ideas for getting more >_____ by using less >_____?

Learn more:

• Kai Ryssdal hosts Marketplace from the Port of Long Beach where the ups and downs of our growing consumer spending is right on the surface.
• UCLA geography professor Jared Diamond talks about population, resource depletion, "overshoot," and why he thinks our current course is unsustainable.
• Tess Vigeland investigates the Trouble with Trash, and hops a ride with her garbage man.