“The 21st century has brought a critical dilemma into sharp relief: we must stop shopping, and yet we can’t stop shopping.” - J.B MacKinnon

Have you noticed that stopping shopping is trending? It used to be a very unusual challenge to take on, but fashion detoxes are going mainstream as people begin to question hyper-consumerism and look for ways to resist it.

But what would happen if we all turned off the fashion tap tomorrow?

And not just fashion - consumer goods in general. What if everybody stopped shopping all at once? The wheels of the economy-as-we-know-it would grind to a halt. There’d be mass unemployment, and potentially chaos, the most marginalised people would be worst affected. And what about all those small business, including the ethical and sustainable ones? What about your job?

Could we find a balance between curbing our consumerist excesses while keeping afloat?

In this must-listen episode, Clare quizzes author J.B. MacKinnon about his riveting thought experiment. When he started thinking about his central dilemma - that the planet seems to need us to stop consuming so much, while the economy seems to require us to keep doing it - no one could have imagined what was around the corner. Covid made the thought experiment real...

Thank you for listening to Wardrobe Crisis. Head over to https://thewardrobecrisis.com/podcast/2021/7/6/ep-144-the-day-the-world-stopped-shopping-jb-mackinnon to read yours and #bethechange

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