Tis The Season to buy Useless Crap
When my wife left her job due to health reasons two years ago we made some major changes to our lifestyle. First we moved to the country on to a piece of land that my Father gave to me for the price of paying off the note, about a fifth of it's value. We cashed in our savings and payed off our mortgages and moved into a small cabin. We now live off a modest income from renting our old home and the small amounts my part time efforts bring in. We live on a fourth of what we used to. Our time these days is spent raising sheep, growing vegetables and working on our ongoing improvements to the property. We don't use credit cards, we don't go out to eat like we used to, we don't hire service folks much as I take care of most of the repairs, and we don't shop for things we don't need. We prepare and raise our own food. We get lots of exercise and full nights of sleep. We read more books. We get entertainment value watching new born animals play and watch a lot less TV. We're both thinner, healthier, and happier and we don't own an Ipod. In short we're gradually unplugging ourselves from the consumer culture. And the funny thing is, I don't miss it.
I notice the change in myself most at this time of year. When I go to the big box stores what used to be "must haves" look like superfluous junk and clutter. All the new electronics don't have any pull at all, I'll get a new TV when the old one dies, and I certainly don't need two. Why rush for that christmas DVD release and plunk down twenty dollars when next year I'll get it at a garage sale for $1. I can wait. I've become immune to the urgency that mass marketing instills in people. I've become immune to the advertisers siren song telling me I'm a failure as a human being if I don't have a new SUV like my neighbor. The value of a vehicle drops by half in the first year, buying a new car is insane. I buy used trucks without power widows and gadgets(just more stuff to break down) and drive them into the ground. A car is something that performs a function but it shouldn't be part of your identity. But that is the only identity most people have. They have nothing in their lives that identifies them as a unique human being other than their spending profile stored in a merchants computer database. The counter argument of course is consumerism keeps the economy growing and keeps people employed. Well at the rate that automation is progressing those jobs won't be around for long. In the near future machines will take care of most material production and soon most information jobs as well. These days most telemarketing calls and customer service are automated. Online shopping is largely automated and soon the shipping warehouse will be too. Eventually we'll be giving people unnecessary jobs just to keep them busy and keep the system going( I would argue that to some extent this is already true). In addition our current system wastes huge amounts of energy, material, and time(rush hour comes to mind) and it is rapidly degrading our environment. It can't go on forever. It's instructive to remember that money and economies are a human invention, and an ancient one at that. How many 6000 year old techniques for civilization do we still use? Clay tablets? no. Hamurabbis code? no. God incarnated rulers? no. Slaves? no. God forbid if we still used ships with oars. It's time to start moving to new more mature idea of civilization or risk the collapse of the one we have. It's time put consumerism in the dust bin of history. We'll all live a lot longer.
I notice the change in myself most at this time of year. When I go to the big box stores what used to be "must haves" look like superfluous junk and clutter. All the new electronics don't have any pull at all, I'll get a new TV when the old one dies, and I certainly don't need two. Why rush for that christmas DVD release and plunk down twenty dollars when next year I'll get it at a garage sale for $1. I can wait. I've become immune to the urgency that mass marketing instills in people. I've become immune to the advertisers siren song telling me I'm a failure as a human being if I don't have a new SUV like my neighbor. The value of a vehicle drops by half in the first year, buying a new car is insane. I buy used trucks without power widows and gadgets(just more stuff to break down) and drive them into the ground. A car is something that performs a function but it shouldn't be part of your identity. But that is the only identity most people have. They have nothing in their lives that identifies them as a unique human being other than their spending profile stored in a merchants computer database. The counter argument of course is consumerism keeps the economy growing and keeps people employed. Well at the rate that automation is progressing those jobs won't be around for long. In the near future machines will take care of most material production and soon most information jobs as well. These days most telemarketing calls and customer service are automated. Online shopping is largely automated and soon the shipping warehouse will be too. Eventually we'll be giving people unnecessary jobs just to keep them busy and keep the system going( I would argue that to some extent this is already true). In addition our current system wastes huge amounts of energy, material, and time(rush hour comes to mind) and it is rapidly degrading our environment. It can't go on forever. It's instructive to remember that money and economies are a human invention, and an ancient one at that. How many 6000 year old techniques for civilization do we still use? Clay tablets? no. Hamurabbis code? no. God incarnated rulers? no. Slaves? no. God forbid if we still used ships with oars. It's time to start moving to new more mature idea of civilization or risk the collapse of the one we have. It's time put consumerism in the dust bin of history. We'll all live a lot longer.
