5 ms·

That's conspicuous consumption gone mad, it seems to me too many people have far too much disposable income. What is it about people that they cannot be conten

That's conspicuous consumption gone mad, it seems to me too many people have far too much disposable income. What is it about people that they cannot be content with their clothes in that they have to change them long before they're worn out? This is fashion gone mad. I never throw out clothes, and I can keep the same items for many years - I've still got jeans, BD dungarees, etc. that I bought over 20 years ago. When they eventually become threadbare I tear them up for cleaning rags. What the hell is wrong with these people that they can be so wasteful?

Retric 5y ago
Much of this isn’t conspicuous consumption it’s a lack of reuse inside of developed nations. Low quality clothing is so cheap it’s hard to fathom, making buying new simply easier and just as affordable. “In 2019, American families spent on average about 2% of their income on clothing.” It’s vastly more affordable than “In the 1950s, the average American family spent about 10% of its income on clothing, and that money bought them just a few sturdy garments a year.” Thrift shops went from a way to save real money at the cost of time to a fashion statement.
- hilbert42 5y ago
  "Much of this isn’t conspicuous consumption..." Perhaps not. However where I live the amount of dumped clothing is unbelievable. Charities that once used to take almost any amount of clothing now do not. Instead, they'll take the top 10% of it and dump the rest - 'dump' here means send the rest overseas to third world countries. Moreover, not that many years ago, these charities used to have used clothing collection bins - great big steel boxes about as tall as a person with a hinged lid at top - scattered all over conspicuous parts of the city and they have been all removed because the charities no longer want the responsibility of dumping huge volumes of stuff (as it's many times more than they can cope with and it's long past the point where if they were to accept the clothing then it would cost them money to it. Essentially, these charities have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of clothing. Now, they are very picky about what they will accept. If one now wants to give clothes to a charitity then one has to take it there themselves. The charitity will then pick the eyes out of it and what it does not want the donor will have to find somewhere to dump the remainer. Now, much clothing goes directly into the trash can thence to landfill. If you wondered why my post was so cynical now you know.
dillondoyle 5y ago
A lot of the super cheap stuff from Shein is so utter shit quality it won't last more than a few wears. And it's almost all plastic. I can't stand synthetic fabrics I feel like if people were exposed to real materials they would learn it feels better and last longer. And is fashionable. Real wool, nice cotton, silk. It lasts a long time if it's constructed & woven well. I don't know if it's actually better in terms of co2 but sustainable livestock and cotton seem better than plastic. I would bet a lot of the typic HN 'dude engineers' don't even know their shirts are plastic.
- hilbert42 5y ago
  "A lot of the super cheap stuff from Shein is so utter shit quality it won't last more than a few wears." Then why do people buy the stuff? I just do not understand their mentality. I buy good clothes to last. Let me give an example, I have a number of pairs of BD-like dungarees which I bought brand new several decades ago (they're not ex military but a high quality clone thereof). These are my knockabout do-anything in clothes and I'm damned if I can wear them out (sometimes I wish I could as I'm getting tired of the greeny color). What's more, they we dead cheap - about one third the cost of say Levi 501 jeans. So you can buy cheap good quality clothes if you take the time to look. I'm no gift to sartorial excellence, so I suppose that's an advantage. Give me durability over fashion any day. Besides, that type of clothing is usually much more comfortable and practical than the fashion-laden equivalent.
  - friedturkey 5y ago
    I'll try to say this in a polite way, but if you're presenting dungarees as an example of a good purchase, explaining fashion simply isn't possible. It's like trying to explain to a typical old woman born and raised in rural Belarus the value of a a fine set of chopsticks, or a Mormon the value of a fine coffee grinder. Your reason for buying clothes is completely fine--but it's not at all what motivates people who partake in this problem. For younger people, fashion is a way to show off to people or be comfortable in various situations. It's much easier to spend $150 on a set of new clothes to try impressing a date than it is to try impressing someone with your car like people may've tried decades ago. And trends change often these days, so people change their clothes often as well. I'm not defending it. I buy one pair of pants and one or two shirts a year. But it's not a thing you're ever going to "logic and reason" people out of.
esarbe 5y ago
They were trained to be good little consumers and they are doing a splendid job.

Retric 5y ago

Much of this isn’t conspicuous consumption it’s a lack of reuse inside of developed nations. Low quality clothing is so cheap it’s hard to fathom, making buying new simply easier and just as affordable. “In 2019, American families spent on average about 2% of their income on clothing.” It’s vastly more affordable than “In the 1950s, the average American family spent about 10% of its income on clothing, and that money bought them just a few sturdy garments a year.” Thrift shops went from a way to save real money at the cost of time to a fashion statement.

hilbert42 5y ago
"Much of this isn’t conspicuous consumption..." Perhaps not. However where I live the amount of dumped clothing is unbelievable. Charities that once used to take almost any amount of clothing now do not. Instead, they'll take the top 10% of it and dump the rest - 'dump' here means send the rest overseas to third world countries. Moreover, not that many years ago, these charities used to have used clothing collection bins - great big steel boxes about as tall as a person with a hinged lid at top - scattered all over conspicuous parts of the city and they have been all removed because the charities no longer want the responsibility of dumping huge volumes of stuff (as it's many times more than they can cope with and it's long past the point where if they were to accept the clothing then it would cost them money to it. Essentially, these charities have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of clothing. Now, they are very picky about what they will accept. If one now wants to give clothes to a charitity then one has to take it there themselves. The charitity will then pick the eyes out of it and what it does not want the donor will have to find somewhere to dump the remainer. Now, much clothing goes directly into the trash can thence to landfill. If you wondered why my post was so cynical now you know.

dillondoyle 5y ago

A lot of the super cheap stuff from Shein is so utter shit quality it won't last more than a few wears. And it's almost all plastic. I can't stand synthetic fabrics I feel like if people were exposed to real materials they would learn it feels better and last longer. And is fashionable. Real wool, nice cotton, silk. It lasts a long time if it's constructed & woven well. I don't know if it's actually better in terms of co2 but sustainable livestock and cotton seem better than plastic. I would bet a lot of the typic HN 'dude engineers' don't even know their shirts are plastic.

hilbert42 5y ago
"A lot of the super cheap stuff from Shein is so utter shit quality it won't last more than a few wears." Then why do people buy the stuff? I just do not understand their mentality. I buy good clothes to last. Let me give an example, I have a number of pairs of BD-like dungarees which I bought brand new several decades ago (they're not ex military but a high quality clone thereof). These are my knockabout do-anything in clothes and I'm damned if I can wear them out (sometimes I wish I could as I'm getting tired of the greeny color). What's more, they we dead cheap - about one third the cost of say Levi 501 jeans. So you can buy cheap good quality clothes if you take the time to look. I'm no gift to sartorial excellence, so I suppose that's an advantage. Give me durability over fashion any day. Besides, that type of clothing is usually much more comfortable and practical than the fashion-laden equivalent.
- friedturkey 5y ago
  I'll try to say this in a polite way, but if you're presenting dungarees as an example of a good purchase, explaining fashion simply isn't possible. It's like trying to explain to a typical old woman born and raised in rural Belarus the value of a a fine set of chopsticks, or a Mormon the value of a fine coffee grinder. Your reason for buying clothes is completely fine--but it's not at all what motivates people who partake in this problem. For younger people, fashion is a way to show off to people or be comfortable in various situations. It's much easier to spend $150 on a set of new clothes to try impressing a date than it is to try impressing someone with your car like people may've tried decades ago. And trends change often these days, so people change their clothes often as well. I'm not defending it. I buy one pair of pants and one or two shirts a year. But it's not a thing you're ever going to "logic and reason" people out of.

esarbe 5y ago

They were trained to be good little consumers and they are doing a splendid job.