The goal of this kind of economy, rather than increasing consumption, is to improve quality of life.

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In Japan, the cost of food, more nowadays than even housing, is what burdens family budgets and keeps the cost of living high depressing overall consumption, and, more fundamentally, the quality of Japanese life.

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California has previously led the way nationally in curbing per capita electricity consumption, improvement in air quality and other measures of energy and environmental stewardship.

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This loan will fund a comprehensive energy retrofit project that, when completed, will enhance quality of life for the residents, reduce energy costs, cut water consumption, improve indoor air quality, and create quality local jobs.

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Even relatively water-rich countries of the region, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Bhutan and Papua New Guinea, now face water supply and quality constraints in their major cities because of population growth, growing water consumption, environmental degredation, damaging agricultural activities, poor management of water catchment areas, industrialization, and groundwater overuse.

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These systems continuously collect, analyze and summarize in digestible form information about all aspects of factory operations energy consumption, labor costs, quality problems, customer orders.

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Concentrating on volume, while maintaining quality, the vodka is looking to subvert a long-standing equation of consumption as a marker of social status, as was eloquently explained by Pierre Bourdieau in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment Of Taste.

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The quality of employment also matters and the current job recovery has not done enough to boost discretionary consumption to anywhere near where it should be, following the depths of the recent Great Recession.

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