Getting Beyond Shop-Til-We-Drop

[marmar]

from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:


Getting Beyond Shop-Til-We-Drop
JULY 1, 2015


Inequality has our planet down, the veteran analyst Juliet Schor believes, but not out. She’s seeing more and more of us working for alternatives to mindless consumerism — and the failing economic system that so relentlessly generates it.

Over the past quarter-century, Boston College sociologist Juliet Schor has probably done more than anyone else in the world to bring grand conceptual constructs like income distribution down to the nitty-gritty of daily life.

In her two biggest best-sellers — The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure and The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer — and in a wide variety of articles and appearances, Schor has vividly exposed how inequality unleashes dynamics that have us consuming ever more and enjoying life ever less.

“Somebody needs to be for quality of life,” as Schor has put it, “not just quantity of stuff.”

And everybody, she’s emphasizing in all her work today, ought to be worrying more about how inequality is endangering our increasingly fragile planet. ..............(more)

- See more at: http://toomuchonline.org/getting-beyond-shop-til-we-drop/#sthash.MZf66ef0.dpuf

[underahedgerow]

1. I've always been shocked at the US ideal of 'shopping' as a family activity. I am forever

just baffled at how people can think of 'shopping' as a way to spend quality time with the people you love. Malls are horrifying, huge shopping centers identify cities and towns. How much stuff do people need? How many rolls of toilet paper to fill the garage? Huge closets stuffed overflowing with tee shirts and sweat pants beyond what one can ever wear in a lifetime. Toys, toys, toys for the kids, as far as the eye can see. Stuffed animals? Seriously why?

That Americans put such a huge value on how many tee shirts and jeans they have; how many big screen tvs (and the fights on Black Friday), how many cds and dvds and video games; utterly non-productive and self absorbed entertainment, rather than socializing, traveling, spending time with family and friends, making new friends.

People buying throw away plastic crap as decor, cheap couches and chairs and lawn furniture and an endless supply of coffee cups, just spending money to spend money.

And the food! Holy moly a 3rd of the people in the USA are overweight. Saturday shopping day with a hundred dollar+ food bill -- and much more. Drinking gallons and gallons of milk (milk is for cows, not humans). Pounds and pounds of poison filled red meat or toxin filled chicken, gallons of processed canned and boxed dried up 'food,' rarely anything healthy and nutritious... Sugary juices, barrels of pepsi & coke instead of water, tons of sugary, salty, non-nutritive fake food and sugary, carb/gluten laden cereals. Plastic bread, even worse... Let's not even talk about fast food and chain restaurant choices, that crap is just toxic. It is no mystery at all why so many Americans are seriously obese.

It's all about excess, there is no self control for any kind of shopping.... Family time doesn't exist unless it's about eating or shopping for more crap no one needs.

People are broke because they've spent so much money on useless crap they just don't need with credit card bills spiraling into bankruptcy, get that cleared and go out and shop some more.

We have to buy a NEW car! Why? Because we want one! Never mind that when you've finished paying 36,000 bucks for a 20,000 dollar car, that it's worth 5000 bucks. How crazy is that? Who does that without feeling utterly like a fool?

Will Americans learn to control themselves? I don't think so, I don't see a solution to this endless circle of avarice and greed and excess... That's my gripe and I'm sticking to it.

[Warpy]

2. I don't get it, I hate shopping

I'd far rather order stuff out of a catalog or online and not that much of it.

[tech3149]

4. I think those of us of a certain age can easily immunize ourselves from the infection of consumerism

My parents and grandparents had to deal with the economic devastation caused by the financial elite during the 20's. I learned those lessons all too well but was drawn into the consumerist culture in my 30's. It was selfish and counter productive but not harmful because the income was available. I dropped out of the economy over a decade ago and have done fine by living a simpler life. I enjoy cooking my own meals, fixing things that need fixing, and avoiding spending money on things I don't need.
I can still remember my Dad making the decision to buy his first new car when I was in high school. He had pretty much never owed anything to anyone and that was a hard choice to make. He was just sick and tired of spending the whole weekend trying to keep an old piece of junk running so he could get to work on Monday.
I think the first step is to just turn off the TV or at least remember how much money and science goes into convincing you that your life isn't complete without some new toy.
I can't assign attribution but one of my favorite tropes is "The more things you own, the more they own you"

[LWolf]

3. Shopping as a hobby...

another of Ronald Reagan's legacies.

Or, that's the way I remember it.

[The2ndWheel]

5. Equality is endangering just as much as inequality

Equality, or the way we think of it, is a very human concept, which doesn't really exist. Everyone should have equal opportunity and access to everything that anyone else can have. You just don't see that out in nature.

And if demand creates jobs, then how are we supposed to not shop til we drop? You're not helping your fellow citizen if you don't spend money.