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These type of posts bother me because they play the blame game without substantiating arguments or offering useful alternatives. This paragraph in particular wa

These type of posts bother me because they play the blame game without substantiating arguments or offering useful alternatives. This paragraph in particular was annoying: "We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing." To start, this almost implies that there's a room full of Old Powerful White Men (let's be honest, that's what you imagine) figuring out how to raise little consumer sheep. Like it's a big conspiracy or something. Even worse, the government must be in on it, otherwise I wouldn't have to work 8 hours and feel tired all the time! Well, part of this 'conspiracy' is called 'marketing', and if you have an issue with that, then please address it with a logical argument. I think most of HN is fine with marketing, otherwise nobody would get to witness these new startups. Regarding the 8 hour workday: this is an economics argument more than anything. Again, either address it properly or leave it be. What would be nice would be an alternative suggestion. However, I don't think travelling at large with a MBP sipping mojitos on the beach and skyping clients is something society at large can start doing. But the author probably can. (There's a bit of an interesting aside - should intelligence and technical skills afford you more freedom?) To wrap up, what really bothers me with that paragraph, and this post in general, is this: it's being implied that personal happiness and fulfillment (so nothing "feels missing") is not a personal responsibility. What? Let's look at that last sentence again: "We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing." Just because consumerism isn't "filling your inner void" doesn't mean it caused it. That's not to advocate for or against consumerism, just to suggest that there are other alternatives to these problems. And it's your own responsibility to go find them. All that being said, I found the post interesting enough to think about and reply to, so thanks for writing it.

Evgeny 14y ago
To start, this almost implies that there's a room full of Old Powerful White Men (let's be honest, that's what you imagine) figuring out how to raise little consumer sheep. I've never been in such a meeting, but what would you imagine is discussed when sales strategies are devised? - How can we drive our customers to buy more of our products? How can we sell more to existing customers, how can we attract more new ones? Marketing, advertising campaigns showing how happy our customers are? or - Do our customers really need that much of our products? Should we educate them on the fact that excess usage of our products is unhealthy? Should we make sure they don't hurt their budgets or rake credit card debt? What I'm saying is that it's not a conspiracy, but the "hand of the market" does not care if you are better off buying something or not. McDonalds wouldn't care if you ever eat anything but fries, Johnson & Johnson wouldn't care if you wash your hands obsessively 25 times per hour, and no home electronics provider would care if you hoard their products in stacks in your basement. The only thing they care about is to sell as much as possible, and ideally make you come back for more.

Evgeny 14y ago

To start, this almost implies that there's a room full of Old Powerful White Men (let's be honest, that's what you imagine) figuring out how to raise little consumer sheep. I've never been in such a meeting, but what would you imagine is discussed when sales strategies are devised? - How can we drive our customers to buy more of our products? How can we sell more to existing customers, how can we attract more new ones? Marketing, advertising campaigns showing how happy our customers are? or - Do our customers really need that much of our products? Should we educate them on the fact that excess usage of our products is unhealthy? Should we make sure they don't hurt their budgets or rake credit card debt? What I'm saying is that it's not a conspiracy, but the "hand of the market" does not care if you are better off buying something or not. McDonalds wouldn't care if you ever eat anything but fries, Johnson & Johnson wouldn't care if you wash your hands obsessively 25 times per hour, and no home electronics provider would care if you hoard their products in stacks in your basement. The only thing they care about is to sell as much as possible, and ideally make you come back for more.