Speech Howard J. Brown Makes

¶ … Speech Howard J. Brown makes an impressive presentation of his economic ideas in his speech "Economics and Ethics of Sustainable Design" (Brown, No date). He describes the current economic situation well and does a thorough job of explaining why the current situation will not work in the very near future (Brown, No date). His speech concentrates on how the economic situation is today, giving examples for clarity (Brown, No date).

Then, he concentrates on how the economy must be viewed and addressed in order for society to remain sustainable and attain continued growth (Brown, No date). Overall, his presentation is clear and compelling and his notion of maximizing benefit while minimizing mass is an intelligent and lucid solution to a growing problem: more people and less resources (Brown, No date). Brown sets the stage for his ideas by describing how the world appeared in the past with how it appears today.

For example, he states that what we had was virtually an empty planet with a vast supply of resources vs. what we have today, which is a full planet with declining resources (Brown, No Date). There is no disputing the fact that the human population is growing exponentially. There is also no disputing the fact that natural resources cannot possibly regenerate as quickly as they are being utilized.

He compares this rapid growth phase when the world was younger and the resources were plentiful and people were few to an infant in the womb (Brown). In the infancy stage of development, the tiny organism absorbs as many nutrients as is possible to ensure future growth (Brown). Then after the birth of the infant, it is vital that it consume as many nutrients as possible to ensure its proper growth (Brown).

However, there is a point in the cycle where it is no longer beneficial to bombard the child with nutrients to ensure its growth; in fact it could be detrimental to the body (Brown). According to Brown, that is the stage of the world today and if society does not change, the world will no longer be able to sustain it (Brown). Brown's solution seems simple on the face of it. The solution he proposes is to "Do better with less" (Brown).

Brown describes this with a basic diagram of a factory input/output diagram where the inputs are natural resources and the outputs are the benefits received from the outputs (Brown). It is important to note that he does not describe the outputs as products (Brown). This is because consumers do not really want a product; they want the benefit they can receive from that product (Brown). The example he uses is toothpaste (Brown). According to Brown, consumers do not want toothpaste; they want good oral hygiene (Brown).

In Brown's view, the shift is toward providing good oral hygiene to the consumer using the least amount of natural resources (Brown). Brown discusses the fact that all resources have mass and that what needs to be revised is how we view that mass (Brown). The tube of toothpaste, for example, has a considerable amount of mass (weight of the actual materials used to get it to the consumer), given its size (Brown).

One must not only consider the mass (resources) used in the manufacture of the toothpaste tube, one must also consider all the other resources associated with delivering it to the consumer (Brown). It is only by minimizing this total mass that the economy can continue to grow (Brown). The terms he uses to describe the analogy are embodied mass, product benefits, and naked value (Brown). According to Brown, all productivity is measure based on what goes in and.