and disincentives that, in operation, would likely be both more self-regulating and more participatory than our existing economy. From a resource perspective, probably the most central elements of the service economy would be product stewardship systems based in extended producer responsibility (or EPR). EPR means that the producer of a product takes responsibility for full costs over the entire life cycle of the product, cradle to grave. It is a systematic extension of the polluter pays principle, in that, if corporations had to pay all the nowhidden costs of resource extraction and toxic pollution, they would quickly find ways of making things out of existing materials and out of non-toxic benign substances. Like Xerox, they would want to keep control of the materials involved in order to best conserve them, to lease their products, and to essentially sell service. Selling service also means that companies have to be especially sensitive to the specific needs of their customers. As I discussed more comprehensively in my earlier book, when applied to an entire economy, the focus on service rather than accumulation represents a radical redefinition of wealthfrom quantitative to qualitative. When society really begins to take consumption seriously, prioritize human need, and consciously attempt to increase the quality of life, all kinds of questions emerge about levels of need and about the difference between wants and needs. It raises questions about who we are, what the purpose of our lives is, and what our priorities should be, individually and socially. Answering these questions may not be easy, but few people have ever been given the opportunity to do so. (Industrial capitalism has tended to provide only materialistic avenues for fulfillment; it has assumed that the answer is technology, but forgot the