Cesar Clarence D.

Contreras
The Burden of the City Lifestyle and Its Proliferation
What is the city? Today the city according to Dr. Rodriguez, can be said to be the site
of accumulation and wealth creation1; as a consequence the city also serves as the purpose or
means of achieving or attaining what people call prosperity via the resources and wealth
accumulated in the city, the specific ways they try to attain prosperity will be discussed later
on. The way this prosperity or the state of prosperity is defined, according Profess Jackson,
is as the state when life is going according to plans and expectations 2. Is the city then not a
good thing? The city, after all, allows man to gather together and accumulate resources that
can be used reach a state of prosperity. But then again, will the city truly allow man to reach
true prosperity?
Man tries to reach prosperity through the city; there is some historical and factual basis in
this. Look at how the city emerged and grew; according to Dr. Rodriguez, cities got their
boost from the trade of surplus resources and agricultural produce brought to the city by
farmers and traders.3 Why exactly did these people go to the city? Why not stay in the
countryside? The main reason people came to the cities were due to the opportunities of
wealth and prosperity that were present in the city via being a hub for trade 4. Based on this
reasoning a process can be inferred. The process was as followed: They saw opportunity in
the city, the people went to the city and adhered to its system of growth and wealth
accumulation, they then used the wealth gain from these opportunities in different ways; all in
an effort to attain this state of prosperity. The ways people try to attain prosperity using their
wealth though all noticeably have a degree of similarity; in that these ways involved the
1 Agustin Rodriguez, Lecture on the City, April 28, 2014.
2 Jackson Tim, Prosperity without Growth (Sustainable Development Commission), 16.
3 Rodriguez, Lecture on the City, April 28, 2014.
4 Ibid.

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The Burden of the City Lifestyle and Its Proliferation
consumption of goods and services created in the city itself. An efficient system, if judged by
capitalist economic standards, as it allows the city to attract people in order to fuel its growth
and development then provides them with the incentives; which were produced by these very
people themselves, to stay. On the surface it seems perfect, people work hard to produce, they
get rewarded with currency which they then use to consume what they or other people
produce; everyone benefits and the city grows as a result. It is far from perfect though, with
several problems that will be shown through an in depth explanation using the Philippine city
and its evolution as a model.
Next, after the people have migrated to the city, by nature of trade the city grows and
develops and along with it the development of various goods and services and systems that
accompanied it: Governments grew more complex, science was developed, and the economy
more formalized. All of these developed, but all in an effort to address the same thing, that is
attaining prosperity through the methods of growth, production and consumption.5 This is
not necessarily bad per say, growth with the goal of increasing the abilities of people to
consume goods that will satisfy their necessary needs is an admirable goal. Today though, the
very prosperity people tried to attain through growth has seemingly been equated with its
methodology; people today see continuous production outputs and constantly increasing
income as prosperity6. What is wrong with this mindset?
Looking back, prosperity as defined earlier, that is the state of things going according to our
expectations and hopes, implies a state of continuity. By this definition things are not
prosperous if ones hopes and plans do not come to fruition and by nature hopes and plans
also include some notion of continuity. So then prosperity, by nature of its definition, must
5 Jackson Tim, Prosperity without Growth (Sustainable Development Commission).
6 Ibid.

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The Burden of the City Lifestyle and Its Proliferation
have a notion of continuity; prosperity basically must be sustainable based on its earlier
definition.7
As I have stated earlier, in the present people try to attain prosperity through growth and
development but how exactly is this growth again related to prosperity? To be prosperous
things must go according to plans and expectations. To ensure the efficient fruition of our
hopes and expectation we must accumulate resources to attain them. To efficiently
accumulate resources we must go to the City hub, for that is the center of trade and surplus.
For the city to more efficiently accumulate resources we must make it grow and develop; the
further it develops the more prosperous we are for there are more resources at our disposal
that can be used in attaining it. As a side note, the city also provides us with goods and
services which we can use to attain our expectations.8 The growth of this city will provide us
with a larger variety of higher quality goods and services which we can again use to achieve
our hopes and expectations. But by definition of prosperity, all of these processes used to
achieve prosperity must be as sustainable as possible; this whole process must be
continuous and never run out.
Therein lies the problem; the notion of prosperity is achieved today through continuous
growth, non-stop accumulation of resources and then the consumption of the goods produced
using the resources. But To be prosperous we must be sustainable, so we must be able to
continuously grow, accumulate and consume. Yet, how can one be prosperous and sustainable
at the same time in a world of finite resources? The current concept of prosperity contradicts
itself; continuous growth and consumption in a world of finite resources will not allow for
sustainability, more so for the city system that actively encourages overconsumption and
7 Ibid., 16.
8 David Crocker and Toby Linden, eds., Ethics of Consumption (Rowman and Littlefield, 1997).

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The Burden of the City Lifestyle and Its Proliferation
limitless growth; depletion of these resources will lead to the degradation of the environment
from which we collect them. How can man be prosperous if his expectations are placed upon
consuming finite goods and services made from finite materials? Clearly then, based on the
above, todays notion of prosperity is incompatible with sustainability; in a sense todays
prosperity cannot be truly said to be prosperity at all for the prosperous growth of the city
contradicts the sustainable notion of what we define as prosperity 9. The current prosperity
espoused by the city has little to no notion of continuity and sustainability; it merely
encourages the active use of resources to obtain our needs; needs established by the city
system in the form of goods and services.
This over dependence on goods and services and their dictation as necessities by the
city system is also another conundrum that contradicts the continuous notion of prosperity;
goods and services that were not needed before become a necessity due to the growth and the
lifestyle established by the city, the further use of these goods only trigger more growth in
response. An example of this is the automobile. Today vehicles are a necessity required in
order to attain other necessities such as groceries that are also in turn required to attain
prosperity. Prior to its advent though, vehicles were not needed to reach such necessities;
everything was accessible via walking. Only the continuous growth of the city and its
structure dictated that the automobile become a necessity to survive, further use of the
automobile dictated that more resources were directed towards automobile production. 10 This
also had the effect of man becoming materially attached to automobiles. What is the problem
then seen in this situation? The problem here is that limitless growth causes more goods to
become necessities in the city system in order for us to attain prosperity, this in turn forces
us to consume goods that were not necessities before in order to prosper; which further
9 Jackson Tim, Prosperity Without Growth (Sustainable Development Commission).
10 David Crocker and Toby Linden, eds., Ethics of Consumption (Rowman and Littlefield, 1997).

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The Burden of the City Lifestyle and Its Proliferation
reduces the finite resources in the world to create goods that would not be needed at all
without the city system and lifestyle. Limitless growth than, can be seen not as a way to attain
prosperity but rather as an impediment to it. An impediment because growth dictates goods
that werent needed before as essentials; consequently, the resulting more growth leads to
more goods being dictated as necessities by the city and limitless growth being what is, that is
limitless; the process is endless and will never allow us to attain sustainable prosperity
because in the end, what is merely accomplished is depletion of our finite resources for the
creation and consumption of unnecessary goods and services that were only made necessary
by the city system and lifestyle.
Now, hopefully, it has been made clear why limitless growth and the current city
lifestyle will not allow us to attain prosperity due to its unsustainability; prosperity should be
sustainable and city lifestyle is actually an impediment to sustainability and therefore true
prosperity. If one were to look for a better sustainable lifestyle Schumacher provides an
alternative; the best probable way then to be prosperous to him, that is to achieve our hopes
and expectations in a continuous manner, is to change our limitless growth oriented methods
of attaining prosperity to attaining satisfaction with the minimum amount of growth possible;
limited growth in a word. Limited growth allows us to conserve the worlds finite resources
and in a sense to be as sustainable as possible by not depending on over consumption of
consumable goods to gain satisfaction, which will reduce mans attachment to material goods,
and the reduce the size of the city structures that was caused by needless growth which will
all lead to the preservation of finite resources.11
To change mans lifestyle is not easy, as the city lifestyle and the notion of growth as
prosperity; prosperity that conflicts with the idea of sustainability, continues to
proliferate even in the present. The reason it continues to do so is because of hundreds of year
11 E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful (Blond and Briggs, 1973), 61-62.

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The Burden of the City Lifestyle and Its Proliferation
of historical shaping and conditioning. Let us take a look at our notion of prosperity; which is
in the case of the Philippines, and how it has developed and why it continues to proliferate
even now.
In Philippine history, the influence of the west in the development of the country is
undeniable; Spains influence in our formation can be seen to pervade through every facet of
Filipino life: food, clothing, language, economics have been heavily influenced by the
Spaniards and other western powers. I suppose then, seeing all of these aspects of life that
have been affected by the west, we cannot deny the wests involvement in the development of
this mindset and the mindset of current city inhabitants. Bertrand de Jouvenel, a French
political philosopher, offers particular insight on the mindset that defines a western man.
According to de Jouvenel, a western man is someone who sees human expenditure as the
only expenditure; a typical western man is someone who has forgotten that human life is part
of and dependent on the ecosystem of nature12. The western man then is someone who
disregards nature and his environment so as long as there is growth and development; key
concepts that the city and most of its inhabitants similarly use to attain prosperity. The
westerners who set out to colonialize and rule over the Philippines undoubtedly fell into this
type; as the system and the cities they have given us also espoused the same ideology; that is
growth oriented prosperity. What can be concluded then from this is that the growth-oriented
attainment of prosperity, indeed, came from the west.13
Historically, the city itself; or at least organized settlements, have played crucial roles in
shaping our lifestyles and mindsets. From the Philippine context, the cradles of civilization in
the Philippines during the colonial period were the Spanish pueblo communities. As the
12 E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful (Blond and Briggs, 1973), 63.
13 Reynaldo Ileto, Outlines of a Non-Linear Emplotment of Philippine History, in Reflections on
Development of Southeast Asia, ed. Lim Teck Ghee (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1988).

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The Burden of the City Lifestyle and Its Proliferation
center for trade and western growth and development, events happening beyond these centers
have usually remained discarded and obscured throughout history; notions and concepts that
did not fit the rationalist, scientific growth-centered perspective espoused by the city were
disregarded e.g. Animism and some traditions. 14 Anything outside of the pueblos was often
seen as by the people in the communities as insignificant and inconsequential something that
was magnified to the general populace due to these people being the most influential in the
colonial regime. Aside from the heavy concentration of aristocrats, the government was also
heavily integrated into these areas.15 Since these were the sites of development and trade it
made sense for the bureaucrats to be located there for the connections present in the pueblo
centers are what linked the Philippine economic system to the rest of the known world,
through this system relations were built and based upon; which is why bureaucracy is so
heavily integrated into the location of cities. Basically, the city and by extension, the lifestyle
and other systems that accompany it, historically became important due to the presence of
both the high class and the administrators of the government of the dominant power in the
city.16 Due to the power and influence these people held, people either came to resent them or
to aspire to be them. The continued growth of the city though, proves that most people came
to emulate them or that those who resented them were unable to do anything at all. This
notion of emulation of the rich aristocrats and government officials, who represent the city
lifestyle, can commonly be seen in the stereotypical belief that the city offers a better life
and more opportunities something also reinforced by the concept of Imperialist Manila.

14 Reynaldo Ileto, Outlines of a Non-Linear Emplotment of Philippine History, in Reflections on

Development of Southeast Asia, ed. Lim Teck Ghee (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1988).
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.

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The Burden of the City Lifestyle and Its Proliferation
Another factor to consider that reinforced this notion of the city being the seat of
development and all that is good is that historically, at least from a Philippine context, all
Filipinos who resisted against or could not adapt to the settled development-centered pueblo
existence were often termed as tulisanes or bandits by the government; the scum and plague
of society who lived and hid in the mountains robbing and killing innocent passersby.17 This
also resulted, in some cases, in reluctant emulation. The people, not wanting to be branded as
bandits and seeing opportunity in the city, migrated to them; which added to the citys
workforce and growth. Those who resisted were branded as plagues and detriments to
prosperous progress; it is ironic though, once you consider the fact that the KKK and various
other revolutionary fighter factions were also considered bandits and savages by living and
hiding in the mountains. Today these people, instead of being called bandits, are now
ironically seen as heroes by history, revolutionaries who fought for the Philippine nation and
its liberty.18
Does the city then actually make the people prosperous? The simple answer is no, based on
explanation of the earlier explanations of non-sustainable prosperity and unreachable
necessities. While some people, most Ateneans and their families can be seen as a modern
day example, can be said to have achieved some measure of prosperity under the city
centered and growth-oriented development lifestyle that society espoused. This measure of
prosperity attained can be said to be a mere imitation; the lifestyles they live allow them to
prosper in the present but as a consequence makes the future more bleak and uncertain due to
its unsustainable nature. There also the others, those unable to adapt or those who resisted the
city, to consider. Even the attainment of this imitation prosperity is exclusive; the city
17 Ibid., 144-147.
18 Reynaldo Ileto, Outlines of a Non-Linear Emplotment of Philippine History, in Reflections on
Development of Southeast Asia, e. Lim Teck Ghee (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1988), 144154.

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The Burden of the City Lifestyle and Its Proliferation
system discriminates against those who do not adhere to its principles, that of limitless
growth and consumption. The only reason growth is thought to be required in order to
achieve prosperity is because the dominant colonial powers espoused this idea in the past and
shaped our mindset in such a way that it was passed down through the generations.
By now it should be obvious that our concepts of prosperity and development are
compromised; our concept of prosperity is not really our own but one that arose from social,
economic and historical trends that come from the west 19. The historical conditioning of our
belief in this prosperity fueled by the systems of economy, capitalism and industrialism, is
what allowed the west to establish dominance over our definition of prosperity; historical
conditioning to make us inclined towards western development allowed western imperialism
to take control in the form of the city system. 20 This in turn allowed them to continuously
propagate the city lifestyle with us being left none the wiser. This city lifestyle which in truth,
based on what has already been said before, is not actually conducive to attaining prosperity;
a state of life when things are going according to plans and expectations, is actually an
impediment to prosperity due to its lack of sustainability. Even with all this knowledge,
people still adhere to the city lifestyle as the only reality of living because of historical
shaping and conditioning when they are actually unknowingly or in some cases even
knowingly destroying themselves with this lifestyle. People today continue to live this
lifestyle because they have no choice but to do so, they know no other way of living. Fear and
alienation prevents them from living any other life so they instead emulate the lifestyle of the
city. Even when it means self-destruction in all senses of the word, whether it be by
destroying ourselves by becoming attached to material goods, abandoning our old lifestyle in
19 Reynaldo Ileto, Outlines of a Non-Linear Emplotment of Philippine History, in Reflections on
Development of Southeast Asia, e. Lim Teck Ghee (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1988), 130
20 Ibid., 130-131.

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The Burden of the City Lifestyle and Its Proliferation
order to adapt the city or just depleting our finite resources. We live this kind of lifestyle
because we are conditioned to live this kind of life; we are shaped to believe that this is the
only way of life and that to live any other way would lead us to ruin our lives; ironic, because
the growth oriented lifestyle is actually what is ruining our environment and depleting us of
finite resources.

Bibliography
Crocker, David and Toby Linden, eds. Ethics of Consumption. Rowman and Littlefield, 1997.
Ileto, Reynaldo. ", Outlines of a Non-Linear Emplotment of Philippine History. In Reflections of
Development in Southeast Asia, edited by Lim Teck Ghee, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 1998.
Jackson, Tim. "Prosperity without Growth." Sustainable Development Comission, n.d.
Schumacher, E.F. In Small is Beautiful. Blond and Briggs, 1973.