SCHMIDPREISSLERBRIEF©
SchmidPreisslerConsultants · Innovative Strategic Advice - Research - Analysis - Market Solutions · Established 1961
January 2026
The Importance of Consumption
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos: “We are in a break, not a transition.” What applies to global politics and economics also applies to human consumption. Living to consume is a thing of the past. And this is not because politics and economics make it impossible. Rather, it is people who are reshaping their lives, in many cases setting new priorities and assigning a new significance to consumption.
Thanks to diverse knowledge, a growing sense of material and immaterial values, and completely new challenges, people are in the process of reorganizing their needs and requirements. That is why there will be no unchanged continuation of previous consumerism. And that is why we no longer speak of a consumer society, but rather of a knowledge society that is rapidly evolving into a value-based society.
The reordering of needs and requirements is complex. To name just a few examples: there is a growing awareness of the need for greater personal responsibility because people are increasingly realizing that the state is no longer a service provider that takes care of everything.
People know that they will have to contribute financially to freedom, peace, security, resource conservation, and climate protection in the future, and accordingly, these areas will occupy a significant position in their budgets for needs and requirements. The same applies to education, training, and continuing education, as well as the maintenance and promotion of physical and mental health, above all to preserve brain performance so as not to fall victim to the transformation process in an increasingly digital world.
Future prosperity is not expressed in mundane consumption, but in the use of mind and body to achieve performance that makes possible an adequate life in which needs and requirements have their place. Creation has equipped humans perfectly for this.
In a conversation about future prosperity, a good friend asked the question: Have we done everything wrong in the past? Of course not. You have to look at the years after World War II from the perspective of what people experienced. Europe lay in ruins. There was not a single neighborhood that did not mourn the dead, millions of people were fleeing with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Hunger and unemployment prevailed because the economy was in ruins. In short, life was marked by hardship and misery from which it was necessary to free oneself. It is understandable that incredible things happened in terms of time and performance, and that consumption had a completely different meaning than it does today.
Ludwig Erhard's “Wohlstand für Alle (Prosperity for All)”, the concept for a social market economy, contains a very important addition, namely “moderation.” This addition says everything that applies to the future today and can serve as the content of a personal strategy paper for shaping people's lives.
If you are looking to exchange ideas and compare perspectives and assessments that influence your corporate strategies, we are happy to serve as your sparring partner at Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!. We, the SchmidPreisslerBrief team, Christina Schmid-Preissler, Maximiliana Schürrle, Alexander Schürrle, and Franz M. Schmid-Preissler, look forward to exchanging ideas with you and send our warmest regards.
Your F. M. Schmid-Preissler
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Für den Inhalt verantwortlich (MStG): Franz M. Schmid-Preissler - Anschrift siehe oben
