War on Consumerism

Today people just buy so much random stuff.  Some might say we buy things just to buy things.  When we are walking through the store and we see something we want, we convince ourselves that we can use it for such a long time and we need to have it.  Once we actually buy it and have it for a few weeks we realize that a new and better version of the thing that we just bought has come out.  We talk ourselves into being embarrassed that we do not have the best of everything.  This just starts a whole cycle that results in a lot of wasted money and materials.  This cycle is very bad for our wallets and the environment because most people do not dispose of the products correctly. Usually they just sit around our house gathering dust until we final decide to get rid of it.  When we finally throw it away, it sits in a landfill, which is very bad for the environment.

How did we get like this? What causes us to think that we cannot survive if we do not have to latest and greatest of everything?  This distortion in our thinking directly stems from the consumeristic world that we currently live in.  Everywhere we look, we see something that we can buy and we feel obligated to.  All around us there are advertisements for things that we can spend our money on and we feel that in order to keep up with the world we need to buy it.  The companies that are selling the products want us to feel this way because the only thing they are worried about is making a profit.  They do not care about the terrible effect that our consumeristic thoughts that they are fueling have on the environment.

In order to leave this mindset and stop the cycle, we need to not let ourselves be influenced by all of the advertisements that we see around us.  We need to learn to be happy with everything that we have and notice that we are perfectly capable of getting by, thriving even, without having every latest and greatest gadget or the newest clothes.  Making these kind of changes will not only help us save money, but it will also help us save the environment.  If we stop buying so many things, we will then stop throwing so many things away.  If we stop throwing so much away, that means that landfills will get smaller and smaller.

People look at consumerism as helping the economy.  The economy will adapt and find a way to survive if people stop buying products in the amount that they currently are, but the environment cannot keep up with the pace that we are setting.  Stop consumerism, save the environment.