| The United States of America is a post-industrial society whose technology and control of resources has enabled it to become the wealthiest society that has ever existed. The U.S. has developed a consumer economy to distribute and dispose of that wealth. The consumer economy is one dimension of a consumer society in which patterns of consumption have not only economic but also cultural and political significance. These patterns of distribution and consumption are implicated in serious threats to the environment, to American national security, and especially to American social and political institutions.; This dissertation reviews the problems associated with the consumer economy, presents a summary of Aristotle's value theory, discusses republicanism as a branch of the Aristotelean tradition of inquiry, and proposes an alternative pattern of distribution based on this Aristotelean tradition.; Aristotelean and republican value theory supports moving from a consumer economy toward a "eudaimonic" economy, i.e., one in which education and research displace consumer spending as the most important category of economic activity. This alternative pattern of distribution would require no fundamental changes to the American economic system or form of government, yet would ameliorate the problems arising from the consumer economy. Providing universal access to higher education would be a feasible first step in this direction. |
