Why consumerism is good actually

jasoncrawford

This is a linkpost for https://rootsofprogress.org/why-consumerism-is-good

“Consumerism” came up in my recent interview with Elle Griffin of The Post. Here’s what I had to say (off the cuff):

I have to admit, I’ve never 100% understood what “consumerism” is, or what it’s supposed to be. I have the general sense of what people are gesturing at, but it feels like a fake term to me. We’ve always been consumers, every living organism is a consumer. Humans, just like all animals, have always been consumers. It’s just that, the way it used to be, we didn’t consume very much. Now we’re more productive, we produce more, we consume more, we’re just doing the same thing, only more and better….
The term consumerism gets used as if consumption is something bad. I can understand that, people can get too caught up in things in consumption that doesn’t really matter. But I feel like that’s such a tiny portion. If you want to tell the story of the last 100, 200 years, people getting wrapped up in consumption that doesn’t really matter is such a tiny fraction of the story…. Compared to all of the consumption that really does matter and made people’s lives so much better. I’m hesitant to even acknowledge or use the term. I’m a little skeptical of any use of the concept of consumerism….
Any consumption that actually buys us something that we care about, even convenience, or saving small amounts of time, is not a waste. It’s used to generate value that is not wasted. It is spent on making our lives better. Are some of those things frivolous? Certainly, but what’s the matter with frivolous uses? Tiny conveniences add up. They accumulate over time to be something that is actually really substantial. When you accumulate little 1% and 0.5% improvements and time savings, before you know it you’ve you’ve saved half of your time. You’ve doubled the amount of resources that you now have as an individual to go for the things that you really want and care about.

Can you steelman “consumerism” for me?

This is a linkpost for https://rootsofprogress.org/why-consumerism-is-good

“Consumerism” came up in my recent interview with Elle Griffin of The Post. Here’s what I had to say (off the cuff):

I have to admit, I’ve never 100% understood what “consumerism” is, or what it’s supposed to be. I have the general sense of what people are gesturing at, but it feels like a fake term to me. We’ve always been consumers, every living organism is a consumer. Humans, just like all animals, have always been consumers. It’s just that, the way it used to be, we didn’t consume very much. Now we’re more productive, we produce more, we consume more, we’re just doing the same thing, only more and better….
The term consumerism gets used as if consumption is something bad. I can understand that, people can get too caught up in things in consumption that doesn’t really matter. But I feel like that’s such a tiny portion. If you want to tell the story of the last 100, 200 years, people getting wrapped up in consumption that doesn’t really matter is such a tiny fraction of the story…. Compared to all of the consumption that really does matter and made people’s lives so much better. I’m hesitant to even acknowledge or use the term. I’m a little skeptical of any use of the concept of consumerism….
Any consumption that actually buys us something that we care about, even convenience, or saving small amounts of time, is not a waste. It’s used to generate value that is not wasted. It is spent on making our lives better. Are some of those things frivolous? Certainly, but what’s the matter with frivolous uses? Tiny conveniences add up. They accumulate over time to be something that is actually really substantial. When you accumulate little 1% and 0.5% improvements and time savings, before you know it you’ve you’ve saved half of your time. You’ve doubled the amount of resources that you now have as an individual to go for the things that you really want and care about.

Can you steelman “consumerism” for me?

The dictionary definition of consumerism is: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consumerism

1: the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable

also : a preoccupation with and an inclination toward the buying of consumer goods

2 : the promotion of the consumer's interests

This is also definition 2.1 from wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism):

Consumerism is the selfish and frivolous collecting of products, or economic materialism. In this sense consumerism is negative and in opposition to positive lifestyles of anti-consumerism and simple living.^[5]

Previously, from context, I believe it's quite clear that we're talking about definition 1 b (merriam webster) and 2.1 (wikipedia). The original post talks about how consumption is good even if frivolous, according to the OP; I believe this makes that quite clear. This is why the definitional issue of consumerism isn't quite relevant, and the definitional issue that is relevant is regarding what's frivolous. I see this a lot in internet discussion, where discussion revolves around a concept that is encapsulated by a word with multiple meanings, and a different-but-related meaning of the word keeps being brought up. It muddies the conversation. The discussion is about the concept, not the word; words are but the medium.

Regarding your more on-point criticism, I generally agree. I think the key, so to speak, is two-fold:

Sometimes things just can't be equivalently-substituted not due to the goods/services, but due to the situation. That's just life.
Sometimes the situation or one's mindset, both of which are malleable, are the issue. The situation of amenities being too far away is one borne of bad urban planning. 2.5 mins, your benchmark, is quite short and good, however I do notice myself going out a lot less since I came to the US (almost a decade ago) because cities are extremely not walkable, so just going to the park is a whole thing. This is something you live with, but also fight to change. Thus, in the near-term, maybe consumption beats just utilising local amenities, but that is not necessarily the case, and once again is a semi-conscious choice made by the local communities and governments and can be changed. There is also a mindset aspect, which is that many things appear significantly less enjoyable than consumption, but that is something that we can change. For example, 'sitting there with your thoughts for 15 minutes' sounds quite fine to me! I strongly believe that isn't because I'm special, it's merely because many of my family who were part of my upbringing are buddhist and hence I was taught to find value in mindfulness. In other words, I think my rule-of-thumb holds, but one needs to look deeper, not at what is substitutable, but what could be, and what it would take to change that. That sounds like a lot, but a bit of incremental change every day or week adds up very quickly, and I think relaxing consumerist (by the contextual definition here) attitudes and stepping off of the treadmill a bit makes life a lot more fulfilling.

11

Why consumerism is good actually

11

11

11

Why consumerism is good actually

11

11