The Dirty "C" Word

Manufacturing jobs reached a peak about the same time the government was urging Americans to conserve during the energy crisis. The numbers have dropped off every since, only recently ticking up. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 Does the fact that we live in a consumption economy and not a manufacturing one explain the reticence about "the dirty C word: conservation" in this country?  When I was an elementary school child in the mid-1970s, I remember being instilled in school with values focused around conservation.  I dimly remember brochures that touted turning off the lights, turning down the thermostat, driving 55 on the highway, and picking up trash and recycling.  I have been trying to locate those old brochures online, but thus far, I haven't had any success.  The overall message was to use less electricity, gas, and energy.  As a little, probably neurodivergent child, I remember going around the house and turning off lights and lecturing whoever would listen.  Like many lessons from the elementary years, it got internalized and has been part of my life ever since. 

At that time, the concern was having enough energy, saving money on expensive energy, and cleaning up a messy America.  Fast forward to today, and power is more abundant than ever, but new concerns make those old lessons relevant.  The difference is that while at that time, the government was the spearhead of efforts to advise on ways to save energy and money, in today's zeitgeist where conservation would be the easiest thing everyone could do to mitigate not just climate but impacts from our overconsumption of everything on the planet. 

Unfortunately, the "C" word, "conservation," is rare to hear, even though it would be the easiest thing to do.  As COVID taught us, slowing down human activity has tangible impacts on the earth.  Is the difference between now and the 1970s that manufacturing still drove the American economy, and today it is dominated by buying stuff?  In that old world, saving electricity and fuel didn't threaten the economy because they were peripheral to that "main economy".  Today, consuming is the economy.  In a word, conservation is terrible for the economy.  Now that we are bringing more manufacturing back, we can say the C word again someday.