Consumption

"Our enormously productive economy… demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption… We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing rate".

- Victor Lebow, 1955

Below from Why Consumption Matters by Dave Tilford (updated 9/21/15 - this link is no longer active).


Retail analyst Victor Lebow's statement might sound crass today, perhaps even a bit quaint in its unabashed promotion of materialism and waste. The words ring with a certain post-World War II naiveté-an unexamined faith in personal and spiritual fulfillment achieved via an endless stream of cheap and disposable consumer products.

If the words seem outdated, the message is not. The latter part of the 20th century was spent largely following Victor Lebow's recipe for prosperity and fulfillment. Since the industrial revolution began in the 1800s, the world has been on an unprecedented consumption binge. Since 1950 alone, the world's people have consumed more goods and services than the combined total of all humans who ever walked the planet before us.

*******

Is this really who WE want to be? Consumed by stuff.  Stuff that was manufactured with planned obsolescence in mind?  Meaning it was designed for the dump, made only to last so long and then be discarded so you have to buy more stuff.

What can you change in your life and the lives of your family to not be consumed by the consumption? 

Check out The Story of Stuff Project   

It might get you thinking.

Click HERE for their website.