Rethinking Lifestyle

The story is told, that there was a man who lived in a village by the sea. Every morning he got up and went fishing. After he had caught enough fish for the day he would go home, play with his son, take a siesta and enjoy lunch with his family. In the evening, he and his wife would go to the local community centre where they met friends, exchanged stories, played music and danced the night away.

One day a wealthy tourist saw the man’s meagre catch, and asked, “Why do you only catch three or four fish, when you could catch so many more?” “That is all my family needs for today,” replied the man, “so why would I catch more?”

But the tourist had gone to business school, and could not help but offer advice. “You know, if you catch a few more fish you could sell them in the market and make some extra money.” “Why would I do that?” the fisherman asked. “With the extra money you could save up and buy a boat. Then you could catch even more fish and make even more money which you could use to buy an entire fleet of boats.”

“Why would I need so many boats?” inquired the fisherman. “Don’t you see? With a fleet of boats you could catch and sell even more fish. With the extra money you would then have, you could move to New York, run an international business and sell fish all over the world.” “And how long would this take?” the fisherman asked. “Maybe ten or twenty years,” the businessman said.

“Then what?” the fisherman said. “Then you could sell your company for millions, retire, buy a cottage by the sea, go fishing every morning, take a siesta every afternoon, enjoy your lunch with your family and spend the evening with your friends, playing music and dancing.”

The effect of such “business thinking” on the world fisheries is most dramatic. We are all aware of the collapse of the cod fishery off the Newfoundland coast. The world fish catch peaked around 1995, and has been going down since then. There is general consensus among fisheries scientists, that with good management this could all change, but good management is dependent on political will. A quick search of the internet will yield interesting results.

But this kind of “business thinking” is, of course, not limited to fisheries. It applies to so many of the activities we all support with our consumer spending, although the effect is not as dramatic. What will it take for us to become more critical of our spending.