Consumerism

by David Gluzman

Why do we always want to buy more stuff? New gadgets, new fancy toilet paper, or a new wallet that might automatically display how much money you have left with a nice LCD display on the side. Seriously though, what is it that brings so much pleasure in buying new stuff that we as a culture have turned into a bunch of monkeys that continue to buy the latest and greatest of everything?

I think depression is abnormally high in today’s society, and somehow buying stuff brings pleasure to those who can’t seem to find it elsewhere. I’m a victim myself, I get bored or want to play with something new; thusly I go out and blow some cash. I’m not putting into consideration the economic standpoint in buying stuff, but when did the world become so depended on purchases?

I sometimes wish we lived in simpler times. Perhaps a time where going out hunting for food was considered your “job” rather than punching numbers at an office building for 50 years. Back in the day, possessions were few, and family was top priority. I believe that in today’s age this statement has been reversed. In North America, people seem to rely on working 24/7 in order to make that ridiculous home payment rather than working less, and living more.

We work too much. Pretty simple I think, we work work work work work and work. Some punch the clock at a higher frequency so that they can make an extra buck in order to buy a new $50,000 car. Problem is they already drive a two year old $45,000 car! It’s ridiculous, and I’m sick and tired of this type of lifestyle that I see day in and day out. I don’t think that we were meant to be coped up inside all day. I’d really like to see some lawyers put in fewer hours and go home and play with their kids.

Don’t get me wrong, I like buying stuff. But at the same time you don’t see me working 80 hour weeks just cause. Hell no, I work as much as I need to work. I would never go into a job where I would have to spend more time at the office than with my family for instance. What happened to weekends? I know too many people that work during the weekend, and not just once in a while, but EVERY weekend. Since when did the work week become 7 days long? Do you really need to be clocking away so much time? What sort of lifestyle do you want to live? Sure you make 100k a year, but you then spend all the time at the office and spend all your money on shitty short term material goods. *sigh* Buy a house, pay it off ASAP, save up, then quit your job I say.

If I could go back to the times where we lived off the land, I’d be there in a flash. I’d much rather spend the time outside hunting deer every so often, then spend 75% of my life working for the greater good and producing more materialist garbage. But alas, it’s the year 2002, and this isn’t possible (to my better knowledge anyways), so I guess I’ll just have to buy that new gadget afterall.

David Gluzman