My new pet peeve: Rampant, Mindless Consumerism/Materialism

[UpsideDownFlag]

the last straw was on black friday. I live near a mall, and couldnt even get home for an hour because of all the blocked traffic.

anyone else find this horrendously annoying?

[flygal]

1. And it's mostly crap they're buying

I just watched the Frontline special on WalMart http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/view/ It really makes you want to stop shopping. I just bought my daughter's presents - handmade toys - and feel so much better about it. I can afford to buy local made products by buying less. When I used to shop at WalMart I used to buy way too much of just sh*t!

[StClone]

7. Walmart downs forecast for Xmas '04

Seems the tax cuts helped up-scale shops but the typical Walmart customer has less to spend.

What I see when I see a Mall or Walmart is all the stuff that will be in a land fill soon.

[RPM]

2. yes

fuck 'em - let them waste their few precious dollars.

[SmartBomb]

3. The American Zombie effect

is most evident during shopping hollidays...








... and elections

[newyawker99]

20. Hi SmartBomb!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[SmartBomb]

32. Hi and thanks! n/t

[sariku]

4. I saw an article in september....

About how incredibly spoiled so many American kids are. It was talking about how we just buy, buy, buy for our kids - stupid shit they don't need, just so THEY can keep up with the Jones'.

I laughed most of the way through it because I had taken my kids back-to-school shopping that day and we felt we were "splurging" on our 15 year old by letting her buy a $5.00 expandable plastic file folder instead of the standard, no-frills one that costs a buck.

I guess I just have a different view of money and spending it, especially where my kids are concerned. I grew up dirt poor - I mean, it wasn't unusual to go without meals. So my driving concern is that my children have their basics covered.

[Coventina]

5. Be prepared to be peeved a lot!

Because there's a lot of it out there!!

I used to be one of them....I'm feeling much better, now.

It's amazing how much a person can do without, once you have a change of mindset.

And what people don't realize, is that once you stop buying crap, you actually enjoy the life you have and what you already have so much more.

[tk2kewl]

6. the ridiculous rising household debt

combined with the ridiculous rising national debt will inevitably bring about a serious economic correction. maybe then when the morans are all going broke and losing their jobs and homes they will wake up.

[LizW]

8. My peeve is how the media is pushing it

Every report I saw on Friday and Saturday was some news person gleefully showing people knocking each other down to get into some mall. On our local news, the reporter was actually asking people to tell (brag about) how much they spent on Friday.

One guy said he spent $2,500! I about fell over. :wow:

[GR]

11. Yes, This Is Part Of The Narrative To Make You Feel Left Out If You

don't participate...And you notice how Drudge has been promoting it. He is so concerned in making the economy look good for his masters.

[CrispyQ]

26. On Friday, I saw an interview with two women who said they had just . . .

filled their Expedition with gifts, were going to drop the purchases off at home & go back for more.

Are these people rich or living on the edge?

[GR]

9. They Are Fed By A "News Media Narrative" That Revels In Crazed Shoppers

stories. They like nothing better than two females duking it out over some sale item. And they have file tape of consumers running into stores as the doors open to use to illustrate this silly narrative.

I've decided that about 70-80 per cent of all talk shows, especially daytime talk shows, is about selling stuff. Books, movies, magazines, fashion, etc. And I'm not talking about the actual commercials. This is even true of John Stewart, to a lesser extent.

Of couse, without these nutty consumers, hyperconsumerism, which makes our economy grow, would be dead in the water. People would actually have leisure time and time to enjoy life and raise their families and have healthcare and retirement funds and stuff like that. When you think about it, a lot of the stuff we make is just war machinery which we sell to other countries and then claim that because they are equal to us, we have to develop newer, even higher tech and more expensive stuff and the spiral continues....

[sinkingfeeling]

10. Hey more of the sheep went shopping Friday than voted!! n/t

[UpsideDownFlag]

12. THAT is particularly scary, eh?

i couldnt find time to vote, but i'll be DAMNED if they expect me to miss the Macy's day after thanksgiving sale!.....:puke:

[cmf]

13. Me, too.

I don't live near a mall (thank goodness), and I only left the house once on Friday. Saturday morning I turned on the news to catch the weather forecast and they showed video of all of these people shoving and jostling to be the first inside the store on Friday morning. It was sick.

[Dora]

14. DU has a group for y'all of us

It's the Economic Activism group, and it can be found here at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=255

[oc2002]

15. You should rent the movie THX 1138, a George Lucas film...

...where people are controled by the state with drugs, actual sex is forbiden, and you are paid from your work with credits to buy widgets that have no usefull function and are simply thrown out into a recycling bin...

great flick.

[UpsideDownFlag]

22. actually, i've seen that movie. it was pretty freaky. nt

[KayLaw]

16. It's disgusting

And I'm disgusted with myself because we're still paying JC Penney for the stuff we bought last year. Never, ever again! And those images of the pushy shoppers reminds me of Depression Era marathons. Those people looked desperate for a few bargains.

[Protagoras]

17. Welcome aboard.

Next you'll start reading Arundhati Roy and Naomi Klein and seeing the impact of our new global exploitation (globalization). If it makes you happy, just think of all the Alaska wildlife that is about to die so that everyone circling the parking lot a the mall can keep their SUVs running till they find that parking space that is just a FEW FEET closer :D

Happy Holidays!

[IrateCitizen]

18. Welcome to the club!

I live in Westchester County, NY and work in Midtown Manhattan, so I am confronted with mindless, rampant consumerism on a daily basis. Luckily, my wife tolerates my Luddite tendencies and is relatively low-maintenance herself.

I've gone from detesting the materialist lifestyle to becoming fascinated with it. I find myself to be much more aware of advertising techniques in all mediums. I guess I just wonder why people embrace such a self-destructive lifestyle out of the mistaken belief that it will somehow bring them happiness.

[wiggs]

19. 20 years from now....

We're going to look back in disbelief at the waste, excess, and insanity that marked this point in time....billions of tiny plastic bottles for bottled water....all the cars on the freeway with single riders...packaging for products that is more wasteful and costly than the product....lights on in office buildings all night...wasted food...wasted water....

Much of the world already lives in disbelief of how much the developed world consumes. Nice for us but immoral and irresponsible.

[CrispyQ]

27. I hope you're right!

I hope it happens in 20 years or less. I cannot believe the insanity.

It's not a good thing to be well adjusted in today's world.

[UdoKier]

21. Must...have...beanie...babies....uhhh...

Reminds me of the zombies flocking to the mall in "Dawn of the Dead".

Hell, even I buy some presents for Christmas. But what the hell is so special about the day after Thanksgiving? I just want to digest the damn turkey and relax.

[Johonny]

23. So

I love the sales on black Friday. I bought a winter jacket for 1/4 the price. Why would I pay full price for a jacket I need 1 week a year? Thanks to the mass mindless consumers I don't have too. The only thing I love more is the 2 week period after Christmas when all the stuff gets returned to the stores and stuck on the presold bargin bins. If it was't for mindless consumerism I'd have to pay full price for stuff.

[UpsideDownFlag]

25. consume, conform, obey,

yes, it is pretty spiffy that one can go and buy a jacket for half the price- the larger point i'm making is that it seems like our country has become one big cesspool of materialism.

"It's half off! i MUST have it!"

[digno dave]

24. half the stuff bought will wind up in a landfill in a year's time

[Johonny]

29. and...

So if they recycled the crap then it would be ok?

[mitchum]

28. It's because they have no interior life...

they try to fill the emptiness with things, and when that doesn't suffice, they think the answer is more things

I still despise them, though

[EnfantTerrible]

30. I've just posted this list

of corporations and their 2000 donation record incase anyone is interested and would like to adjust their spending this holiday season. It came to me from Mark Crispin Miller...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2763549

[shanti]

31. i absolutely HATE this time of year

and refuse to shop in stores...however, i do shop online. the materialism is one of my pet peeves too.

[Sugarbleus]

33. I've been fed up since a couple years already..

From a purely human sensual point of view, I LIKE the lights at christmas all over town--darker days lend themselves well to lights. I like SOME of the music. I LOVE the parties..

But I HATE the "pressure" to observe the holiday with a tree and gifts...just, well...because everyone else is doing it.

I so wish there were some way to change this holiday into something else, something less materialistic and pressurized. Hubby would go along, but teenage grandson is still a "material boy". *sigh*

Last year I was able to get the family to agree to NOT celebrate Xmas. We agreed to just wait until afterwards and each got a sum of money to go out and buy what they wanted--sales being rampant, knuk knuk. NO DEBT...thank you very much.

When I WAS still celebrating, I also did my shopping online and did it months in advance. NO SWEAT

Gawwwwwwd, I hate the pressure to BUY BUY BUY...maybe I should break my leg so I can spend time in hospital during this wild consumer orgy.

Bah humbug.. lol

[mike_c]

34. I bicycled to the beach on Friday and found nary a gridlock...

...in sight. Consumers? Uh, they were somewhere else.