Merchants have encouraged a culture of greed, of keeping up with the Joneses, of equating a house full of possessions with happiness. Think of all the “collectible” items out there. The Beanie Baby craze is a great example. Ty keeps coming out with new beanies that have cutesy back stories, including “limited edition” ones. People have invested hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands in hopes of having an impressive collection. Some bought Beanies in hopes that their value would increase quickly enough to make them a worthwhile investment. Unfortunately, as happens with most so-called collectible items, their value didn’t increase at all. One couple hoped to finance their son’s college education by reselling beanies, only to lean that their collection wasn’t worth what they had put into it. People have been watching too many reality shows in which people discover rare collectibles, and get the idea that buying some recherché items and squirreling them away will provide them with a gold mine down the road. All too often this turns out to be a mere pipe dream. Meanwhile, the greedy merchants who tout such kitsch laugh all the way to the bank.
In addition, many products have planned obsolescence worked into them. How often do you have to buy a new computer, or a new smart phone? Companies continually upgrade both software and hardware, and even stop providing support for old systems in order to force upgrades. Car manufacturers used to get away with pestering Americans into buying a new car every few years; today, they brag about how long their cars last. Of course, a home computer or cell phone isn’t nearly as expensive as a new car, so people are less likely to complain or demand longer-lasting electronics. Still, wouldn’t it be better if you could count on your Dell or Compaq to work ten, twenty or more years?
Then we come to home entertainment. First, we had videotapes so we could watch favorite movies and TV shows in the comfort of our homes, whenever we wanted. When they first came out, videotape players cost upwards of a thousand dollars; and videocassettes weren’t cheap, either. Then along came laser disks, and then smaller and better DVDs. The latter have many advantages over VHS tapes, such as not needing to be rewound. Millions replaced their tape collections with DVDs, at great expense. Then, just as people thought the industry had settled on DVD, along came Blu-Ray and another round of replacing equipment and media. Even in the early days of Blu-Ray, many declared that they were not going to go through having to replace their libraries again. And that’s for just the second media upgrade! Finally, there is streaming media, requiring people to pay in order to watch movies or TV shows. The option to download is there, which saves on plastic and other materials; however, companies can always provide shows and movies in only the next video format and stop supporting old ones, forcing upgrades – and providing a lucrative market for video pirates.
Our culture of greed is most prominent during the holiday shopping season. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Festivus, the Winter Solstice, or whatever, you cannot escape the screaming ads on TV and radio, in newspapers and magazines, and just about everywhere you look that holler Buy! Buy! Buy! The merchants want you to shop for everybody, even your pet Nanday conure, and make you feel like a Scrooge if you don’t. Department stores and shopping malls have become bomb-cratered war zones where people fight like rabid pit bulls over items that will get used once or twice and end up gathering dust in the back of a closet. Stores tout their “doorbuster” specials and open their businesses earlier and earlier; in fact, some are forcing their minimum-wage minions to work on Thanksgiving – without offering special holiday pay – so they can lure in the hypnotized hordes.
Kids are especially vulnerable to the holiday madness as the ads that air during cartoons and other kiddie fare fill their minds with visions of toys and tie-ins with popular shows and movies. Their doting parents feel compelled to indulge them with piles of gifts. No Christmas (or whatever) tree is complete without enough packages around it to fill a boxcar.
Fortunately, more and more people are standing up to the greedy merchants and their bellowing. Search the Internet for “Xmas Resistance Movement” and you will get a lot of hits. Adbusters touts “Buy Nothing Day” every Black Friday, encouraging people to keep their wallets closed. Religious people are raising hell about the birth of their Messiah becoming a buying frenzy. Some people and groups are encouraging “ungifting,” donating to charity in other people’s names, something that my family has done several years in a row.
We need to break free from the current model that an economy has to grow to be sustainable. We need to learn how to be happy and satisfied with less. No, we need not starve or live in shacks; but we can enjoy life with fewer possessions, smaller houses and older cars. We can thrive while sticking to the basics, while hanging on to fewer belongings. Too many possessions are a burden. Our current way of life takes up too many resources and generates far too much waste, and is causing terrible harm to this planet, destroying ecosystems and driving species to extinction. Fewer things and a smaller living space are easier to maintain – and cheaper to insure.
One system that has gotten much attention recently is the sharing economy, in which people and organizations share both information and physical assets so we need to buy fewer items and can pass along what we no longer need. Sharing economies no doubt have been around for a long time, but it was only in this century that the term appeared. Crowdfunding and open-source software such as Linux are examples of this sharing. Freecycle and BookCrossing are just two out of numerous web sites where people can share personal resources they no longer need, thus reducing the necessity to use up more resources and room.
I like to call this new economic vision “post-consumerism” because we need to rethink, redefine and restructure economic stability and free enterprise. We need to move beyond greed and want, and adapt a simpler lifestyle in which we are satisfied with only what we need. This will benefit not only our own wallets, but our planet itself, when we curtail our use of resources such as land and minerals. As the old saw goes, live simply so that others may simply live. The blossoming Minimalist movement embraces this beautifully, encouraging people to keep only what they really need and give away or share the rest.
