One of the few benefits I've noticed about getting older is the unavoidable increase of perspective that it gives you. And as I've aged I've wondered often if a lot of our issues in society couldn't in some way be derived from our hyper-consumerist mindset. I'm paraphrasing, but in the book fight club the main character at one point laments that you reach a point where your possessions own you instead of the other way around. And I wonder sometimes if our cultural malaise can be seen as an outgrowth of that mindset. Now, I'm not saying I am immune to this, but I've noticed more and more over the years just the manipulations of the markets to almost subconsciously encourage rampant consumption. They pushed that endorphin hit that comes from acquiring a new object, be at a new car or a new pair of shoes. But like any other drug, that high comes with the inevitable low. Sometimes it's simply buyers remorse when you're more conservative mind realizes you've spent beyond your means. Also from a sheer ecological point of view the overconsumption has definitely played a part in the damage that has been done to the environment. The term plastic fantastic that was used in the '50s has created such a wasteful society and has necessitated so much exploitation of natural resources to sustain it. Now I would be hypocritical if I chastised people too hard for something that I also partake in, but do you ever wonder if it wouldn't be better for society to at least somehow encourage a more austere lifestyle. For those in the strong anti-capitalist group, wouldn't that necessarily also weaken the grip that these companies individuals have on your lives if you no longer need their services quite so much? I think we can all admit times that we've gotten online and purchased something that we didn't need, but that we just wanted. I think the downscaling of the hustle culture and the almost panicked desire to gain more shit needs to be dampen severely. Though he was using humor to describe it, George Carlin had a bit years ago talking about stuff and the preposterous nature of rampa acquisition.