Consumers Beware
I read an interesting article today about a group in San Francisco that pledged at the beginning of 2006 that they would not buy any new consumer goods for the entire year. The caveat was that they could buy personal hygiene items like toothpaste and razor blades but nothing new in the form of tangible consumer goods. The idea peaked my interest but not for the reasons presented in the article. Since the group originated in the liberal heart of the left coast, it was based on the idea of anti-consumerism, profit is bad, save the Earth. My reasoning dabbles a little in the idea of consumerism but not in the way they intend.
The marketing machine that drives our economy has worked hand in hand with the financial arms of the industrial octopus to find new and more devious methods of keeping us spending. My parents paid cash for everything. If they needed a new appliance, they saved up and purchased it. There may have been a small bank loan that was paid back in 30 or 60 days but no revolving credit. I remember the first time I saw a credit card used it was at Franklin Park Mall in 1980. I was dating a girl from Toledo and her parents were buying a wedding gift for someone. The used a credit card to buy the item and I was shocked and appalled by their blatant use of someone else’s money. Now having a credit card is the only way to get a hotel room or rent a car.
The next big push was to get you to use the equity in your home to buy things. Once the credit cards were maxed, they conned people into putting up the one thing they owned to continue to buy. So now we have people who have everything they want but are too broke to do anything with it and all of them are worried about losing their jobs for fear they will lose their stuff. So we get back to our group in San Francisco who are buying used or going without. I love the idea. It requires planning and helps to focus on what really matters in life. It is the reversal of the instant gratification that tickles me. As Sheryl Crow says, “It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.”
Icool
Cobb
The marketing machine that drives our economy has worked hand in hand with the financial arms of the industrial octopus to find new and more devious methods of keeping us spending. My parents paid cash for everything. If they needed a new appliance, they saved up and purchased it. There may have been a small bank loan that was paid back in 30 or 60 days but no revolving credit. I remember the first time I saw a credit card used it was at Franklin Park Mall in 1980. I was dating a girl from Toledo and her parents were buying a wedding gift for someone. The used a credit card to buy the item and I was shocked and appalled by their blatant use of someone else’s money. Now having a credit card is the only way to get a hotel room or rent a car.
The next big push was to get you to use the equity in your home to buy things. Once the credit cards were maxed, they conned people into putting up the one thing they owned to continue to buy. So now we have people who have everything they want but are too broke to do anything with it and all of them are worried about losing their jobs for fear they will lose their stuff. So we get back to our group in San Francisco who are buying used or going without. I love the idea. It requires planning and helps to focus on what really matters in life. It is the reversal of the instant gratification that tickles me. As Sheryl Crow says, “It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.”
Icool
Cobb
posted by Cobb at
5:53 AM
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