Creating frugal citizens: The liberal egalitarian case for teaching frugality

Abstract

According to Agenda 21, the United Nation's action plan for sustainable development, 'Governments and private sector organisations should promote more positive attitudes towards sustainable consumption through education, public awareness programmes and other means'. But some could wonder whether the cultivation of frugal consumption habits in schools is compatible with basic liberal principles. This article argues that, in societies like ours, liberal egalitarian theories of justice should permit and even advocate teaching frugality in educational institutions. Liberal egalitarianism expects educational institutions to equip children with the abilities and virtues needed to live well by their own judgment and in compliance with just institutions. The article examines how frugality could be one of these virtues. First, frugality is conducive to better compliance with our distributive obligations towards the current poor and future generations. Second, frugality enables prospective adults to live well with their fair share of scarce resources, and even with less. Third, frugality increases autonomy and facilitates its exercise. The article thus concludes that liberal egalitarian institutions should encourage schools to teach frugality.

The frugal life and why we should educate for it

“…It is something consciously in her sights, something she feels strongly about and wants to push further. This kind of frugality indeed involves 'a stable disposition for little consumption', as well as all the other elements in Zwarthoed's (2015: 287) more complete definition quoted above.…”

“…Is the most basic kind of frugality, perhaps, 'a stable disposition for little consumption'? As we have seen, Zwarthoed's (2015) definition adds other features to this to do with valuing and preferring such a way of life. We will see more later of what she has in mind here.…”

“…I have no problem with this argument, except that it does not go far enough. Zwarthoed's (2015) appeal to climate change considerations is just one of an array of arguments, based on liberal democratic principles, to do with fairness to succeeding generations. It has no special status in her case.…”

“…We are talking about an impending calamity, one that -as David Wiggins (2011) points out -may well by 2100 involve a significant destruction of life on Earth and of the physical environment that supports it. Zwarthoed's (2015) basic concern is with our doing our duty to future generations by avoiding a high-consumption lifestyle. Her position is one that in broad outline has exercised many others during the past 70 years.…”

Intergenerational Justice and Institutions for the Long Term

“…We must finally note that, notwithstanding their disparities, neither insulating devices nor constraining devices seek to alter individuals' motivations, as alternative devices doexogenously, for example, through education (Zwarthoed, 2015), or endogenously, through deliberation (MacKenzie, 2018). Insulating and constraining devices, by contrast, do not aim to directly change individuals' motivations, though they may indirectly have this effect, as we will see below.…”