As you wrap up your Christmas shopping, consider these signs of excessive consumerism cited by Santa Cruz County (California) supervisor Ryan Coonerty:
The average size of the American home has nearly tripled over the past 50 years, even though the number of people living in those homes has shrunk.
One out of every 10 Americans rents offsite storage. It has been the fastest-growing segment of the commercial real-estate industry over the past 40 years. The United States now has more than 50,000 storage facilities, more than five times the number of Starbucks. Currently there is 7.3 square feet of self-storage space for every man, woman and child in the nation.
Although only 3.1 percent of the world’s children live in America, they consume 40 percent of the world’s toys [Ryan Coonerty, “The United States of Stuff,” Governing, 2018.12.17].
The average monthly cost of self-storage is $91, meaning a tenth of our neighbors are spending over a thousand dollars a year just on borrowing an empty building to rewarehouse with things they don’t use much and don’t have room for in the living space they’re already spending $17K a year to maintain.
Our overstuffing leads us into debt, depression, and other personal distress:
…But perhaps advertising’s most worrisome effect is that it works, and all this purchasing could be driving us into debt and unhappiness. Financial difficulties are the leading cause of marital problems among Americans today, and a 2001 Social Science and Medicine study (Vol. 53, No. 4) suggests that worry about debt can lead to stress and depression. Concern about money even extends to the workplace and can lead to absenteeism, lowered productivity and an increase in stress-related illnesses among workers, according to a 2006 report by the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit public policy institute [Amy Novotney, “What’s Behind American Consumerism?” American Psychological Association: Monitor on Psychology, Jul/Aug 2008].
Long-time readers know I occasionally pray at Reverend Billy’s Church of Stop Shopping. Reverend Billy reminds us that our consumerism drives climate change and literal storms:
County supervisor Coonerty suggests some policy measures to rein in this destructive consumerism:
- Incentives, such as lower fees and faster permitting, for smaller homes as well as moratoriums and limits on large homes and storage facilities.
- Replacing the sales tax with a services tax and a carbon tax to make local governments less biased toward siting big-box retailers and emphasizing consumption.
- Tax incentives for repair shops and the purchase of used goods.
- Packaging reductions and bans on unnecessary plastics [Coonerty, 2018.12.17].
For some South Dakota-specificity. might I suggest taxing advertising? The latest “tax expenditures” report from the Departments of Revenue and Labor and Regulation estimates that, in Fiscal Year 2020, a tax on advertising would bring in $35,640,000. We could use that $35M+ to subsidize pay for community service providers. We could also use that money to address all the externalities caused by rampant consumerism.
Or we could just buy less stuff.
Consumerism is a big worry to me. I remember big business building this model of the US economy through advertising and it seems to me that it really began to take off in the 1980s. It was always a thing for the wealthy, but not as much for the rest of us. There was always “keeping up with the Joneses,” but today’s level of consumerism is a whole different thing.
I don’t think an economy built on buying more and more and more *unnecessary* things is healthy. I’m far from an economic expert, but I’ve seen consumerism do a great deal of damage to individuals and families.
Perhaps the greatest I’ll effect of rampant consumerism is skewed values. Things are just that- things. They are not a measure of one’s value in the world. Things do not = love, intelligence, or other intrinsic qualities.
Consumerism is a very dangerous system to base an economy on IMO.
The sad thing the stuff in storage is often junk. Spending money to keep things of very little value quickly become an expense the world is psychology versus simple math in so many ways.
Here’s what I have in mind about our planetary economy. Unending growth is not possible. So what’s the alternative?
Oxford economist Kate Raworth describes it in her TED talk.
https://goo.gl/K2MhwN
“Too many people buy stuff they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t even like”‘ I always say that to myself and then try to not be one of them.
Great thought Darrell.
You folks get me thinking—I don’t think I buy to impress; I buy for utility. I get stuff I’m going to use. I’ve tried to get better at getting rid of stuff I’m not using… though my dad instilled in me a deep appreciation for stockpiling tools, so the one time that one thing breaks, I can fix it right then and there.
But those tools wouldn’t do me any good if they weren’t here in the garage where I can get at them without digging through three layers of boxes. My rule is to never let junk in the garage crowd out our vehicles (including bicycles!).
I was recently thinking about purchasing a 50” 4K TV (I currently have a 40” 1080p set), then later realized I don’t really need it. I don’t watch any 4K content, and there is hardly any 4K content either online or on a BluRay disc. Same goes for a BluRay player. I sometimes think about buying one since the non-4K players are becoming more affordable. But all of my movies are on standard DVD, and they still look rather good on my set when played through an upscaling DVD player. DVD versions of new films may lack extra features, but I hardly watch those extra things either.
I wonder what most people do with their not-that-old smartphone or 1080p HDTV when they do run out and buy a fancy new model? Do they give their old tech to other family members, consign it to a resale shop, take it to a pawn shop, or donate it to a thrift store? Any of those options prevents some old tech from ending up in landfills at least.