Buy Stuff, but Buy It Differently

While we may be in the service of consumerism, we are not slaves to it. We are serving the idea of consumerism voluntarily and happily. In fact, sometimes we even spend beyond our resources and go into debt to gain the positive feeling of buying something.

If we all changed our daily vote (the stuff we buy), within a very short time we could solve the global garbage crisis. We would probably have more time on our hands and be happier overall too; the constant hamster wheel of working to have happiness-giving products to consume would be a thing of the past.

In the absence of unanimous global rejection of consumerism, we can still reduce our impact on the planet as individuals. For the solution of changing our buying habits to be accepted by popular culture in the short term, it needs to come without harming our economy as we traditionally define it. Only then can we move toward a culture that will accept a form of economy not driven solely by size and growth.

Thrift—or moving back in time to the village mentality—is not the short-term answer. Experiments to take this vision mainstream have failed on all accounts. The economic paradox of thrift states that if everyone tries to save, aggregate demand will fall; this will in turn lower total savings in the population because of the overall decrease in consumption and economic growth. In other words, the concept of buying stuff is central to our current view of economic progress.

To shift our culture of consumption in a sustainable way, we first need to become conscious of what we buy.