Life – a user's manual Part II - Boksidan

Corporate advertising expenditure and consumption quadrupled between 1935 and 1975 (Jonsson
S, 1982)
It can be concluded that advertising expenditure and consumption has risen like hand in hand and they
have followed our production growth (GDP). Which among other things can be seen in that the ads
have become better, or what do you think The chart below also shows that the provincial press has
lost some of the advertising to other media.
The data Jonsson presents extends no further than the mid 70's, but it is reasonable to believe that
advertising expenditure and private consumption continued to follow GDP. If so, the curves pointed
sharply upward just as in the 50's and 60's.
Total expenses for advertizing, GDP and private consumption
Index (index 1935=100) .
500
450
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350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 Year
Cost of advertizing
GDP
Privare
consumption
Average amount of
ads in country
press
Isn’t it then strange
Very many dimensions of our material standard of living and the Swedish economy has improved
enormously throughout the 1900s. But the why haven’t we, since 1978 when we introduced the fifth holiday
week, taken out some of the growth in more leisure time
It is reasonable to believe that it is because we have chosen to always use the excess to increase our
consumption, even though we already have everything we have ever dreamed of and much more. It is also
reasonable to believe that it largely depends on advertising, because it is constantly telling us that we should
not be happy as it is, but instead consume more.
Probably it would be devastating to the world economy if we one day would be satisfied with our old TVs
and more. Though for a single person, it would probably make major improvement in the quality of life, if
he/she used a portion of the increased prosperity in the form of shorter working hours, rather than in the
form of new gadgets.
Furthermore, perhaps the reasoning about being usefull is no longer valid, since most of the basic work
(which most people used to spend all their life doing) now almost entirely is done by machines. Nor is it
reasonable to believe that we would be losing competitiveness if all cof us did not ontribute, as most are
busy with doing things that do not contribute significantly to competitiveness. Finally, it feels antiquated to
say that those who do not contribute are living on the other, because most people who thinks they are
contributing, yet lives on the labor and capital formerly plowed into our nation.
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