Defining waste is almost impossible when you see things in these terms. Is culture a waste? Are things not needed to survive waste? Are activities only valid if

Defining waste is almost impossible when you see things in these terms. Is culture a waste? Are things not needed to survive waste? Are activities only valid if they generate enough new knowledge or happiness - who judges that? Ultimately you need to trust that if someone spends, there's utility to the spend, otherwise they wouldn't have - even if the act of spending is the benefit itself. It's not for 3rd parties to judge the usefulness of the spend. To illustrate this, think about the typical teenager who's mom says wastes all their time on "insert hobby mom doesn't like" and extrapolate that to the world's consumption habits. Everyone thinks others are wasteful.