Could excessive consumerism be a thing of the past?

[LuckyLib]

Folks aren't buying. I replied on an earlier post about the economic meltdown that millions of middle class folks, secure in their jobs and houses, are simply rethinking and re-evaluating their priorities and will not be buying stuff. Maybe the need to keep buying will only be limited to shopaholics among the monied class. Average folks? Reuse, recycle, buy only essential items that must be replaced -- lots of folks are hunkering down.

[Fresh_Start]

1. I hope so

it was bad for society and bad for the environment

[zagging]

2. It's a down cycle. We'll come storming back.

[Donnachaidh]

10. yeah, right.

:eyes:

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Unless you have cash on the barrell head or a super line of credit, it is passe.

Nobody can afford to continue to buy things for which they have no money with which to exchange. I don't know whether this is temporary or permanent, but it's right now.

[Raven]

4. I think so. I used to kid my mother about being a "Depression-Era Child"

because she was tight as a tick, brought the bottles back to the store and counted every penny. Her father lost everything in the Depression and she never forgot it.

[Vickers]

5. I think it will never be what it was. Practically nobody at work has

bought anything of any real value since, oh, December or so, and they are finding that their lives haven't fallen apart.

[Missy Vixen]

20. Craigslist is our friend

We needed a lamp for our family room. $10 from Craigslist, and still sealed in the box.

We needed to replace the Ethernet hub that runs the network in our house. $20 from Craigslist, and still sealed in the box.

There are other things we might be purchasing over the next several months, but being on unemployment really cuts out the "frills". LOL

[Warpy]

6. Most of us are drowning in STUFF

and I think most of us would like to get rid of some of it. I can foresee neighborhoods with permanent weekend yard sales as we recycle the stuff we don't want into stuff we'd like to have for a while.

I always bought used stuff. Even shopaholics can be satisfied buying stuff at yard sales.

However, yes, we're not going to be filling the glittering malls with plastic in our hands, going into indentured servitude to buy it all new.

[madrchsod]

13. i recycle a lot of what i buy

i may buy something that`s "to good to pass up" then later..think i`ll sell it. rummage sales are going to be more crowded than walmart this year.

my son already has a date lined up for a rummage sale this spring and i have three full boxes ready to go

[LakeSamish706]

7. Just read this post and see how bad it is in China, and it is probably...

much the same here right now. I think we will lose many more retailers.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=114x57684

[ElboRuum]

8. Stuffitude.

I believe we will be right back on the "I need more stuff" attitude, or stuffitude as I call it, just as soon as there is even the slightest upturn in the economy, however, I don't think it will be as excessive as it has been for some time. I think people are going to want things (nothing wrong with that, it is the prime mover of a robust economy) but I believe that they are going to seriously evaluate each big purchase knowing how things can go pear-shaped as they do.

[Xithras]

9. For this generation maybe.

My grandfathers generation lived through the roaring 20's (when consumerism was as bad as today), the great crash, and the depression that followed. It changed his generation and he was frugal for the rest of his life. His kids, growing up listening to him tell stories of his youth, also learned the lesson well.

A few generations later those lessons were forgotten and we did it all again.

Consumerism may be permanently sidelined for the current generation, but in another 50 years or so our descendants will be right back at it again. Those of us still around to see it will be laughed off as doddering senior citizens if we try and raise an alarm, and the whole cycle will repeat itself.

[One_Life_To_Give]

11. Forgotten within two generations

No different than the last depression. Those who live thru it will remember, their children will learn the values their parents used to survive it. But the grandkids will have to learn the lesson firsthand again.

[zagging]

14. Yep

[Warpy]

18. That's been the problem all along

and the snake oil salesmen from the mercantilists through the laissez faire boys through the supply siders and on to the next big thing, the libertarians, will always return.

Any solution this time will have to be a radical one, from public financing of Congressional races to get the filthy money out of our government completely to the destruction of the corporate personhood myth.

We know a new generation that never experienced this meltdown first or second hand will be ready to believe their bullshit. Our job is to make it much harder for their bullshit to take over again.

[madrchsod]

12. i ve been doing this for years now..

i`ve been buying good used american made stuff from my local thrift shop. all my stereo stuff is from ebay or garage sales. we bought a new frig last year and may buy a new tv this summer on qvc because of the easy pay. if the credit markets open up we`ll apply for a home improvement loan for window and heating and cooling

a good place to buy stuff is a local pawn shop or craigslist

[Missy Vixen]

22. Try Craigslist for the TV

or Target. We've found two different items we needed for our house on Craigslist in the past week and a half, brand new, still in the box, and at a fraction of what we would pay retail.

I know about EasyPay, but QVC doesn't always have the best price. If you have a Costco membership, I'd try looking there for a TV as well. (The flat screens are dropping in price. Also, you can get the "floor model" at a fraction of one in the box.)

[madrchsod]

24. thanks!

[Cleita]

15. I hope so. Back in the fifties, keeping up with the Joneses became a sick

sport. With the extra prosperity we enjoyed then after the New Deal and during the war free Eisenhower years, people turned into one upping their neighbors, for the first family on the block to get a better car, a new TV, a stereo, a color TV and on and on. It resulted in families getting stuff they really didn't need and sending outdated stuff to the junk yard prematurely. We have kept up the tradition of throwing away perfectly good stuff to get newer stuff. It creates a false economy in a way because stores are always selling things in good times, but we are also wrecking our environment because of it. There has to be a better balance for this somewhere along the way.

[bdamomma]

16. I hope so too, we have too many toys, and let's be citizens instead of consumers.

[bdamomma]

17. oops double post.

[DBoon]

19. It was a thing of the past decades ago

The people who could afford wanton materialism have been a shrinking part of our population since the downturn of the 1970's

The people you see buying the latest expensive gadget and spending money like it was going out of style are not in any real way "middle class" - unless you define someone making $500,000 a year as "middle class"

[azmouse]

21. I'm buying a lot less and enjoying it more.

And I'm finding I have more money left at the end of the month.

[RobinA]

23. Six Months Ago

I was reading how big ass SUVs were a thing of the past. A two dollar a gallon drop in the price of gas...not so much.

[Lagomorph]

25. We're upgrading our home...

with new, greener, technology. Other than that, we don't spend like we used to.

Easy credit had the effect of over inflating our economy and it's time to start paying the bills. It's unavoidable that the economy is going to downsize to a sustainable level. We'll have our hands full keeping the have-nots under a roof of their own. It doesn't make any sense putting people out on the street where they'll be subjected to the horrors abject poverty and do what they must, just to survive.