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> Imagine a world…where someone who just likes to cut hair decides to cut hair for other people as long as they get to be creative while doing it. It sounds wo

> Imagine a world…where someone who just likes to cut hair decides to cut hair for other people as long as they get to be creative while doing it. It sounds wonderful. Here’s the problem. Most people don’t want a creative hair cut. Most people want the same boring haircut everybody else has. And they need it now, not when you’re feeling “inspired” or “creative.” A world where nobody is incentivized to provide value to others aside from “creative satisfaction,” is a world where nobody provides value to others. Whether or not you agree with all the things people buy, the fact is, most people buy most things because they find them useful (the top GDP-contributing activities are rooted in things like food, water, housing, transportation, clothing, etc.) Ending consumerism, means the end of people doing useful things for each other. This includes all the peaceful global cooperation between countries that is a byproduct of a consumer driven global economy. I don’t think changing the mindset of countries with nuclear weapons from optimistic growth to pessimistic scarcity is going to have the positive outcomes you think it will. Unfortunately, when humans fight over scarce things, they tend to kill each other.

smolder 5y ago
> Whether or not you agree with all the things people buy, the fact is, most people buy most things because they find them useful This requires a loose definition of "useful" which includes status signalling, satisfying an impulse to buy things, and so on, to the point it's tautological; every action is useful. I would not attribute the bulk of consumer spending to an expectation of usefulness, otherwise. Among the useful things, people still spend extra to buy pleasure foods, pleasure clothes, pleasure housing, pleasure transportation. > Ending consumerism, means the end of people doing useful things for each other. I think if you look at how consumerism is defined, it's apparent we can have the exchange of goods and services without it. Economic systems can exist without consumerism, and existed before it.
- goatlover 5y ago
  Which societies are those? Feudal ones where the nobles are the only ones consuming and everyone else is subsisting? Or the ancient ones like Rome where there is a large amount of slave labor?
  - smolder 5y ago
    Or native american tribes, other pre-industrial subsistence economies. Slavery isn't at all required. A post-scarcity star trek kind of society wouldn't qualify as consumerist. A modern commune, whether you think it's a good idea or not, and whether you think they 'work' in practice or not, absolutely could exist without consumerism and without slavery. It's silly to think what we've got going is the only way to live. Even within our system, not everyone lives a consumerist lifestyle, some are ascetic.

smolder 5y ago

> Whether or not you agree with all the things people buy, the fact is, most people buy most things because they find them useful This requires a loose definition of "useful" which includes status signalling, satisfying an impulse to buy things, and so on, to the point it's tautological; every action is useful. I would not attribute the bulk of consumer spending to an expectation of usefulness, otherwise. Among the useful things, people still spend extra to buy pleasure foods, pleasure clothes, pleasure housing, pleasure transportation. > Ending consumerism, means the end of people doing useful things for each other. I think if you look at how consumerism is defined, it's apparent we can have the exchange of goods and services without it. Economic systems can exist without consumerism, and existed before it.

goatlover 5y ago
Which societies are those? Feudal ones where the nobles are the only ones consuming and everyone else is subsisting? Or the ancient ones like Rome where there is a large amount of slave labor?
- smolder 5y ago
  Or native american tribes, other pre-industrial subsistence economies. Slavery isn't at all required. A post-scarcity star trek kind of society wouldn't qualify as consumerist. A modern commune, whether you think it's a good idea or not, and whether you think they 'work' in practice or not, absolutely could exist without consumerism and without slavery. It's silly to think what we've got going is the only way to live. Even within our system, not everyone lives a consumerist lifestyle, some are ascetic.