Comments on: We are drowning in material goods, yet we crave ever more stuff.

By: holly woolley

holly woolley — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:43:26 +0000

For Christmas gifts and presents I only give food and fruit baskets now. It gets used and doesn’t get wasted or stuck in a landfill somewhere. It can easily be taken to work and shared with co-workers or used at holiday family gatherings. The bus driver and post man get a plate of cookies. Grandma gets nicer gift from Figi’s containing nuts, fruits and her favorite chocolates. I make my husband his favorite cake from scratch, and the children now don’t get as many toys as they used too. They all wound up broken or in landfills. They now get one toy and a nice outfit to be used all winter long. And the best part of this, is I can bake ahead and store in freezer so unlike others waiting in busy lines at a mall, I’m all done. I worried people would call me “cheap”, instead they complimented the taste of the food and didn’t mind at all. For some, this was the only time in my life I got a “thank-you”. No more Visa and Mastercard. I am out of debt now and made different life style choices and this is the way I feel good about living now. Christmas is more special now– it’s become a joy to give and not a burden. It feels good to “free” yourself, whatever steps you have to take, just stop worrying about what others think of you and concentrate on what is best for you and your budget.

By: Dan Klarmann

Dan Klarmann — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:23:29 +0000

Good Affluenza video. A nice blend of old commercials and new ideas. I watched the whole thing. It’s the first issue I’ve seen on which I completely agree with Focus on the Family.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 05:15:53 +0000

Here’s a video by NPR’s Scott Simon regarding Affluenza. Lots of vintage video clips. Lots of thought-provoking statistics. http://www.badcyclopedia.com/affluenza/

By: Webomatica

Webomatica — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 19:13:55 +0000

Have you heard of this photo journalist book: Material World? It pretty much documents the materialism in America and the rest of the western world. Basically people are asked to move all their possessions outside and the photographer takes a picture. The result is either “wow look at how poor other countries are” or “gee, we Americans are grossly materialistic.” I take the latter view. I think we spend too much time obsessing over money and the things we can buy. Ultimately, none of this stuff really makes anybody happy after the basic necessities are met. And unfortunately, middle class americans think we need a lot more crap than we really do.

By: Gerry Connolly

Gerry Connolly — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 16:59:39 +0000

I find it hard to sustain my goal of living more simply. Talking to friends and finding ideas and support can be helpful; knowing that I’m not doing this on my own. Many trappings of modern society leave me uncomfortable. Running a second car is my chief complaint. Everytime the insurance bill comes I ask myself whether there is an alternative. The average age of the cars is 14, and the prospect of having to replace one soon when we can barely afford to is daunting. One area that has proved successful for our family is relying on hand-me-downs from family and friends as the source of 95% of our childrens’ clothing. Our eldest son periodically bugs us about getting a play station. He is the only boy in his class without a game system. Yet he seems to accept our decision that he won’t be getting one. Its amazing how much we depend on the library for the kids’ reading. We are there every 10 days or so, and the (non-cable) TV is chiefly used for videos. These steps might not work for everyone, but I think our lives are better for having made these choices.

By: Sid

Sid — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 14:59:46 +0000

As for buying all those needless gifts. One year when we were all self sufficient, my mother simply said “OK, we are not kids anymore, we are all well off, anything we need we have already bought. Therefore, for Christmas all I want is the gift of your presence around my dinner table. If you all come, then you will all have given each other the most precious of gifts.” And that was that (nobody argues with mom).

By: Arno Nym

Arno Nym — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 11:28:16 +0000

Nice article. Thanks for that.

I am always amazed by how most people don’t understand that the stuff does not only “clog the arteries of their houses” but actually enslaves them. Just look at most people’s net worth. What they have to show for their life of work is a huge pile of toys.

If you spend your hard-earned dollars on consuming, you enslave yourself for a lifelong suffering of work. It takes away your freedom. I have seen the 50 something year olds breaking out in sweat and seen the panicking look in their eyes when they might be fired. They spent all their life energy on toys or meaningless gizmo.

If instead people would lead a modest life and save their dollars, they can buy themselves freedom. If there’s no need to work, work can even be enjoyable. But you have the freedom to choose.

They should teach some basic economics in school. Like, spend less than you earn. The power of compond interest. The distinction between investment and consumption. How to value.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 20:32:39 +0000

gatomjp writes: “So how do you do it Erich? Does anyone have any strategies to share for limiting your material possessions?”

I DON’T do it very well at all. I would get a grade of maybe D+ in my attempts to resist the onslaught of materialistic temptations. My poor batting average bothers me. Bothers me enough to recognize this huge problem with our culture. But I have a long long way to go.

One thing that I consciously try to do is to more is to more carefully consider whether I will really make good and consistent use of things before buying them. This sounds so basic as to sound naive, but it’s a first step. On those occasions when temptation to buy strikes, yet I walk away, I find it liberating. I’m taking baby steps and trying to get much much better at allocating my time to the things I deem more important than owning more things.

By: grumpypilgrim

grumpypilgrim — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 17:02:35 +0000

Besides the almost undebatable benefit that materialism provides to mate attraction in America, another explanation for it is that materialism is a consequence of America’s deep-seated Puritan Work Ethic — the belief that ‘idle hands are the Devil’s workshop,’ so you’d better keep yourself busy with work 24/7. Americans put a *lot* of social pressure on each other to spend time at their jobs. Compared to other developed countries, Americans get very little paid vacation time, get very little paid sick time, get very little paid maternity leave, etc. How many times have we seen co-workers (and ourselves) come to the office when they should have stayed home with an illness? How many Americans accrue more vacation than they ever use? How many Americans spend time at the office merely for the sake of satisfying unstated “face time” requirements? How many Americans realize that their country ranks far behind other developed countries with regard to paid maternity leave — down with Third-World countries such as Swaziland and Lesotho? Simply put, many Americans define themselves by their jobs, and have done so for many generations.

What does this have to do with materialism? Well, America is a place where long hours of work generally translate into a relatively good income. But what do people do when they are working long hours and making plenty of money, but don’t have time to enjoy it? They are unable (because of both corporate policies and social pressures) to step back from their jobs and enjoy some free time, they can’t spend their money on long vacations, they don’t see much value in adult education, but they need some reason to justify their long hours at work, so they buy things. They spend their money on stuff, because they are psychologically unable to spend it on anything else.

By: Jason Rayl

Jason Rayl — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 15:37:46 +0000

It’s easy to condemn America (Western) material avarice and try to assert that it is an aberration, but when you look at other cultures and the way they very quickly adopt the same practices of acquisitiveness once they get the opportunity it looks more like basic human nature. Making the cave as warm, cozy, comfortable, and self-sufficient as possible is not a perversion. The fact of material possession is not, to my mind, controversial, only our choice of which possessions. I do not have a cell phone, dsl link, brand new car, ipod, gps locator, or cable television. What I do have is a library of books and music. I have a piano, a guitar, and some cameras, all of which I use.

I eat well.

But compared to some (many) Americans, I don’t have much at all. Modest house, modest cars, an adequate wardrobe.

Would I like to have more?

If having more did not impair my enjoyment of what I already have, sure.

I have heard complaints for decades about our isolation from each other by virtue of our culture–our mobility means we don’t know our neighbors, the “barrier” of telecommunications and internet keeps us from interacting with “real” people, the hours we work cuts back on family time. Maybe that’s a detriment. Frankly, I know a few of my neighbors and for the most part I don’t WANT them as part of my circle of true friends.

If achieving the virtues noted in Cairo (which, on the flip side, suffers periodic riots, a lot of hunger, sectarian issues which would make our local politics seem like polite dinner conversation by comparison, public health and hygeine problems we wouldn’t tolerate, etc etc etc) required mandatory limits on “material possessions” then I suspect they aren’t quite the wonderful virtures being made out. If they were so great we would not have abandoned them for what we do have.

“…people are to be taken in very small doses.” Ralph Waldo Emerson