I did not mean some fantasy version of Capitalism, just the fact that for a modern capitalistic society to function, people have to want to buy a new car every

I did not mean some fantasy version of Capitalism, just the fact that for a modern capitalistic society to function, people have to want to buy a new car every few years, strife to have a house and take on consumer credits to buy a new flat screen TV. Maybe I should have used Consumerism. I think it is fairly indisputable that modern economies would not function, if there were not a constant and increasing demand for new stuff. From a global standpoint this seems far from optimal, if you want to optimize for conserving finite resources like oil. In a free market the only way to counter act that a finite resource is exhausted is by the fact that the price increases as time goes on. So there is a very long time where you can use a resource for frivolous stuff like Helium balloons, while at the same time being perfectly aware that it should probably be used for more useful things.