It is important to note that he does not describe the outputs as products (Brown). This is because consumers do not really want a product; they want the benefit they can receive from that product (Brown). The example he uses is toothpaste (Brown). According to Brown, consumers do not want toothpaste; they want good oral hygiene (Brown). In Brown's view, the shift is toward providing good oral hygiene to the consumer using the least amount of natural resources (Brown). Brown discusses the fact that all resources have mass and that what needs to be revised is how we view that mass (Brown). The tube of toothpaste, for example, has a considerable amount of mass (weight of the actual materials used to get it to the consumer), given its size (Brown). One must not only consider the mass (resources) used in the manufacture of the toothpaste tube, one must also consider all the other resources associated with delivering it to the consumer (Brown). It is only by minimizing this total mass that the economy can continue to grow (Brown). The terms he uses to describe the analogy are embodied mass, product benefits, and naked value (Brown).

He describes these as deliverable benefits and resource mass (Brown). In order to maintain sustainable growth, it is imperative that there be a shift in the way this is viewed and addressed (Brown). The only way to show significant improvement under the current set of circumstances is to reduce mass and increase benefit (Brown). He then concludes that 'all pollution is waste, people by benefits not products, and most products are mostly waste' (Brown).
Only by using this perspective can innovation and design provide opportunities to increase naked value (Brown). Obviously he has adequately described the current situation and he is correct in stating that there must be a paradigm shift. His seems to be plausible and he offers good examples to support it.

Bibliography

Brown, Howard J. Date Unknown. Economics and Ethics of Sustainable Design: Howard J.

Brown. Googledocs.com.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwOOxWmQwBtmQnIwQTltMDAxTnM/edit (accessed

December 3, 2012).