Habits of consumption - thinking about the next generation

Our culture is so bent on consumption it makes me sick. Of course, I am part of it! I often find myself thinking about how I can upgrade to something better - new clothes, better quality electronics, many things that work just fine that I look for reasons to replace.

In a sociology class this semester, we studied the "insatiable appetite" for consumption that Europeans brought to the new world, and the wastefulness that followed. We are still stuck in that grind. A great example is ethanol, we want to justify using millions of barrels of oil a day, so we exploit the earth and say it's "green" so we feel better!

How to get the US to consume less? There are really 3 primary options:

1) Market - if we let the market determine consumption, we are basically handing the reins over to cartels like OPEC, who can change supply, mess with prices, and destroy any long term trends that will reduce oil dependency (such as electric cars)

2) Energy taxes - policy #1 - these reduce consumption among the poorest class, who spend the greatest percentage of their income on energy (food, gas, electricity). Basically, the poor would be without the little they had, the rich would be unaffected

3) Ration - policy #2 - my new favorite! Each person would receive a voucher each week to consume, say 10 gallons of gas. If people didn't want to use gas, they could sell it to someone else. This could directly control US consumption, but would potentially create a black market/smother private enterprises.

Dr. Schaeffer (my prof) suggests that policy such as these is needed to curb our consumption, but since most politicians are relatively wealthy, policy #1 and #2 are quite unpopular.