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Sunday 24 August 2014

Consumerism & a Nation of Shoppers

Consume - to eat or drink - to use up, expend.
Consumer - a person who acquires goods & services for his or her personal needs.
Consumerism - a high rate of consumption & spending as a basis for a sound economy.
Built in obsolescence - deliberately limiting the life of a product in order to encourage the purchaser to replace it.

I don't see shopping as a leisure activity, I've got more interesting things to do. I don't need to buy things to make me feel good. If I do need or want something I shop around on the internet & look at sites like Which to get reviews of the product & then get the best price I can - often on line. When I buy something, other than things I am going to consume, I expect it to last a reasonable length of time. I want quality, design, functionality etc etc. I also want what I buy to give me pleasure.

The idea that we should all be buying "stuff" to create our economy seems basically flawed to me.  Our economy would be more reliable if it was based on the production of goods & services that people wanted & needed. There is so much "tat" around that no one needs. People no longer expect clothes to last, so they tend not to be well made. People are not prepared to pay the price for good food, they want cheap food, regardless of the impact on the livestock, the land & the people who produce the food in emerging nations.

I have to shop to live my life. Personally I keep the amount of time I spend shopping to an absolute minimum. I do sometimes "go shopping" but I quickly get to the stage where I think "there is nothing that I want to buy that is worth this...." Coping with the crowds of people & the queues just isn't my idea of fun. Why are all these people not at work? I go home & do something much more enjoyable.

I shop to live. I don't live to shop. Perhaps if more people did that they would have more fulfilling lives.


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