Consumerism is defined by Wikipedia as “a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods or services in ever greater amounts”. We as Canadian/North Americans are VERY guilty of this. It’s said that consumerism is one of the reasons why we as Canadians are on average $96,000 in debt. We are seeing numbers that are doubling 1989 debt levels! So why are we doing this? Why are we continuing to go further and further into debt when we should be paying down the stupid debt we got from the years past? Because we as a society have to HAVE STUFF. We need to have more stuff then our friends, we need to “keep up with the jones’s” and we need to look good and smell good, but when it all comes down to it we are BROKE or up to our ears with debt. We are so good at it, we are ranked #1 in debt to asset ratio with the Slovaks, Greeks and US behind us respectively.
That’s consumerism for you. We just HAVE to have that new bluray player, or that new flat screen LED t.v. We have to have the brand new car, the big ass house/condo filled with borrowed or leased furniture that we put on our credit cards, and lastly we used to go on that all inclusive trip that we so “deserved” I say this because I was guilty of exactly that. It’s part of the reason why we got $27,000 in debt on just our credit cards alone and $94,000 in debt to consumer debt. We were 110% guilty of consumerism.
Now we still consume goods, however since building this business we actually consume less and are much more conscious of what we are buying monthly. We no longer buy crap for the sake of buying crap. We no longer need to keep up with our friends or people at work and have that fancy car that is not owned or leased, we no longer buy furniture we cannot afford, and we no longer go on those “deserved” trips that we cannot afford. It’s not that we won’t buy this stuff in the future, its that we will be smarter, pay for it in cash and make sure we are buying it for ourselves and not for the sake of having it. We no longer need to have that image of looking good and smelling good and really being fake.
We as Canadians need to wake up and start watching what we are spending and why we are spending it. I’m not saying we should just stop buying stuff, its just that we should be more conscious of it and stop using that available credit on our credit cards and line of credits. After all you’d think this recession that we are still in or not in (Depends on who you follow) would wake people up, guess not. It will be these debt carrying people that will be crying when the roof comes crashing in in the coming years.
EDIT: Thanks Bridgett for this link. Perfect addition to this post. http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_jackson_s_economic_reality_check.html
