The economies in the world today (at least most of them) are consumer-based; most of the economic activity goes to fulfilling the wants and needs of the consumer-citizen. Since parts of the world are wealthy, the desires of the consumers there are equally high; greater possibilities gives greater wants. This causes most of the big problems we see in the world today: a polluted environment, exhaustion of the natural resources, social tension between those who have much and those who have little.