theory

When seeing things like this I always wonder how much of western overconsumption actually takes the form of goods and services consumed by average people. A lot of it must also be connected to corporate or government consumption that does not improve the lives of normal people, like military expenditure or marketing, most of which could be done away with without causing a fall in experienced standard of living.

And going further, how is this overconsumption distributed internally in the imperial core? I suspect that a tiny demographic is responsible for most of it.

Bottom line, for most westerners, a 50% reduction in consumption, if planned rationally, would probably mean a significantly smaller reduction in their personal consumption. And then there's all the added social and environmental benefits of reining in inequality, consumerism and car culture.