Consumption Thoughts Aug. 9’04
Reducing the ubiquity of consumption, our dependence on it and our need of it.
Colette, the great French writer, advised over 80 years ago that the way to live and survive was to conserve. Admittedly, it was wartime, but her advice ties in with similar in a new book, The Oil Crisis, saying that the way for the world to have enough energy from fuel for longer than the next 50 years is to conserve now.
I have noticed of late some people who think nothing of having a big car and travelling hundreds of miles as a leisure activity, while other people buy new designer clothes – the manufacture of clothes is a huge burden on the atmosphere.
And many people buy more food than they need, not to mention parents allowing their children all sorts of fizzy drinks and sugary comestibles. In New Zealand the biggest waste is in food not eaten, the average household throwing away nearly 650 dollars worth a year. I wish we could follow France’s legislation that their restaurants do not throw out excess food – it must go to the needy.
I do realise that this is a different world now, full of enticing advertising for a bewildering choice of goods to be found in huge supermarkets, stuff all wrapped in multi-coloured, hard-to-recycle plastic. I would almost go as far as to say that consumers have been hijacked, that we’ve been beguiled and cheated, that it’s the marketer who’s king, not the customer. There’s stuff out there being manufactured and marketed to us which we didn’t know about, we never asked for, and telling us for the first time that we have needs we didn’t know about and wouldn’t have known about but for the presence of the object on a shelf in a supermarket, all wrapped in plastic with dubious information about how recyclable it is.
Long ago, actually not so long, but before the 1980s, you bought cheese sliced from a big block in front of you, then it was wrapped in paper; you bought bulk goods put into paper bags specially lined, and / or you brought your own bag with you. Basically hardly anything was in plastic, nothing was triple wrapped. I lived in Tokyo for twenty years, and there’s a culture there of the more wrapping showing that you care more for the recipient. So you get quadruple wrapping, then it’s put in a special nice bag, often made of plastic.
Supermarkets in New Zealand banned single-use plastic bags in 2022, a step in the right direction but more needs to be done about toxic plastics such as PVC, polystyrene (coffee cups, other take-out containers) and microplastics which are easily ingested by marine life, thereby making their way up the food chain.
The next point is quality. Many times I’ve witnessed planned obsolescence in some equipment or devices I’ve bought. And you can’t get them fixed anymore. I recently took back a one-year-old toaster whose insides refused to stay down. I suggested that it would surely be an easy fix. The storekeeper said they would just replace it, thereby simply consigning the old nearly-new toaster to the rubbish. The worst I’ve heard in this respect is Apple, whose inbuilt obsolescence involves having to buy a new device to keep up with the technology, no matter how much you love the one you bought just three or four years before. They also tell you not to open the device, not to take the back off, thereby preventing you from renewing the battery.
If this consuming culture involves parents of today willy-nilly giving their children icecreams, bags of processed nibbles, sweets, chocolate bars – the same parents who probably were forbidden such unhealthy teeth-rotting fatteners – what will their children in turn as parents do with their own offspring?
People consume a lot if they are anxious or in some deep malaise, or if they’ve been brought up that way. Does this mean many people in the US are unhappy. such easy thoughtless consuming would point to immaturity. It takes a lot of strong self-restraining to refuse, to conserve, to go without, to lead a life of enough, feeling that you are satisfied. Consuming for many people is a way of feeling better. It’s far easier to give in and gobble heartily, or buy what you don’t need, or go for a carbon-dioxide depleting drive. It’s as if consuming has become a right, something necessary for people to feel better, no thought given to how things could be otherwise, how much better for everyone it would be if we trimmed our desires a bit. Well, better for the average person’s health and well-being, maybe not so good for supermarkets, restaurants and cafés.
There’s the psychology of consumption. It struck me when I recalled my visits to the US how differently they buy and go shopping there – it’s a huge operation, as if setting up store for imminent siege. Then of course, when it’s not eaten or if it goes past the use-by date, it gets thrown out, a huge waste. If I were god I would make people buy just enough for their needs and make sure you use it all somehow. I was surely brought up that way, my parents, especially my mother who believed in eating everything on the plate, no waste in her house. That’s why local markets must be encouraged, where you can choose the amount of vegetables and fruit you wish, rather than have to buy a huge pre-packed amount. There are quite a few farmers’ markets and open stalls in Kerikeri in the north of New Zealand, and I support them as much as possible, liking buying their goods to put into my own bag. If they still have their veggies in plastic bags, I politely ask them to
take out the contents to put into my bag. I know many towns now have alternative veggey places, selling fresh produce.
Consumption is a habit with many people. It’s a way of life. They don’t really think about how they go shopping. They see it as a right. They worked hard, they earned money, now it’s time to spend it. The thing is going and getting and it has to be lots of it. Since there’s an addictive quality to this and certainly a belief that this is the best way to do things, then it will be a difficult thing to change. People who have the money to shop big tend to think that any other way is time consuming (!), penny-pinching, mean, not having fun spending on the good things of life and showing others that they have the spending power. The thing that might give them pause though is a very simple one: simply to ask themselves do I need all this stuff? And what other things could I do with the money saved? It’s to with deciding to allocate your funds differently, to budget better, to have a dream perhaps. Maybe that’s another way, think of something you’ve always wanted to do or have but never could because you never had enough savings. All you have to do is consume a little less, save the money and look forward to being able to realise that dream.
Otherwise, we may well be forced into spending less if there are soaring costs involved in simply living. I’m thinking of the price of
essentials such as housing, clothing, fuel and of course food.
In “The Millionaire Next Door” (1996), the writers Thomas Stanley and William Danko say that the secret of good living is in how we spend our money. I always thought it was in how one spent time but they make important points about spending less than you earn, how to save and how to live more wisely. Most people have no idea how much they actually need to earn, how much they need to live. The writers go further asking us to track all our spending for three months. This was a salutary exercise because I got a clear picture of my real needs, how much money I had to earn and where it goes. It helped me see that life can be simpler with less consuming.
It’s tough being a human being, dealing with all the little vicissitudes of daily living, all the pressures and persuasions coming at you, bringing up kids who have no filters at all to judge what’s good and right for them. I well know how difficult it is to change, especially if you’re brought up in ways that ingrain themselves into your being, then out there you see them advertised. Your parents were hooked, you are hooked even more. Just try telling me not to have a third glass of wine or that first cup of tea in the morning! Changing ones ways is difficult. We cannot be simply told to stop doing what we enjoy. Many people enjoy consuming, shopping, buying, using and possessing. So what’s needed? What’s the best psychology? It’s too easy to say more mental rigour is needed, telling yourself that such and such isn’t necessary, while you really want to have it. People buy with their pockets and their hearts. A sugar tax would put prices of bad stuff up, and perhaps vegetables and fruit would become cheaper. There are countries whose governments have legislated smaller amounts of sugar for people’s health, but in New Zealand I can taste sugar in almost everything.
Still, I think it would surely be better to change what is presented to people. The purveyors of goods must change. Simply put, people will buy drinks in glass bottles if that’s how they’re presented, if that’s how the manufacturers have to do it. I remember in my childhood milk was delivered each morning in glass bottles. You bought soft drinks in glass bottles. The plethora of choice now is bamboozling. I don’t know how people manage to choose from bewildering varieties of crackers or cheeses or jams or drinks and all the other colourful stuff on display.
Something that occurs to me is many American folks may be deeply anxious because I think huge buying and consumption is a relief or antidote for not feeling quite right. I feel it myself in a very pale form. For example, I’m in the supermarket and say to myself, “Oh, I must have a look at the cheeses, the wines, the domestic equipment, just to see if there’s anything I need or simply just want.” I have to try hard to stop myself, and honestly I usually succeed because I know I don’t need to buy many things shouting out to me. However, I would like to know more about US spending habits 80, 90 years ago. I can’t think that it was such a cauldron of consumerism then. But for sure something happened by the late 1950s because the house we stayed at with a family (long before Air B&B!) in Vancouver had three TVs, one for us in our little apartment in the basement. And Canada is certainly not the US.
I read that Americans and many other people in western countries don’t save much money, unlike the Japanese who have been terrific savers. There needs to be a change of attitude in that respect, saving for the dream or just for that inevitable rainy day.
Well, of course, it’s the simple life, that’s what it’s all about. Also self-sufficiency, knowing how to grow your own food and reduce costs in all sorts of ways. I’ve been driving a small car for years, but can understand if someone has five family members and needs a “People Mover” to cart them around. I have also been reducing the amount of driving I do, trying to do many things on the one trip of five kilometres into town.
Here are a few more ways to reduce consumption and spending.
- Reduce your electric bill by 20%. People in NZ regularly have to do it in winter to save power nationwide. Why not all the time?
- Try growing your own veggies. It’s easy enough to get a small potager and buy assorted plants. Good fun, too!
- Look after your own house and garden, taking care of how much equipment you need.
- Reduce your reliance on eating creatures. I understand vegetarianism isn’t for everyone, but I read now if the world reduced meat eating by 40%, many global problems would be solved. Surely it’s possible to have one less sausage or better to buy plant-based food. It’s actually quite delicious. However, I realise that big physical folks feel they can’t do without the real thing in the shape of a steak the size of the plate and a chicken with all it’s enticing bits. Still, entrenched creature consumers should pause to consider that there are humane ways to get your satisfaction. This vegetarian is certainly glad he managed a long time ago to make the transition from liver to lentils and beans. Sorry, got sidetracked there!
- Don’t buy such big material objects. Get a smaller TV, a smaller fridge, even buy less furniture and linen. It’s just whatever helps you to save rather than spend up large.
- Recycle more stuff and repair things, rather than buy again. I actually quite enjoy fixing up clothing, shoe laces, tea towels and other domestic clutter.
- Keep the likes of kitchen equipment longer by looking after them, by cleaning them well and simply realising that they’re still functional.
- Buy no fizzy drinks, sweets or cakes! You can substitute with squeezed fresh fruit, so much better for you. And eat nuts and dried fruit rather than chippies, crackers and the like, which are full of salt. I try to buy from a bulk shop which has paper bags, or I bring my own.
- Have clothes that are stylish rather than going with fashion.
- Buy things that last longer, and make sure you buy at second-hand shops.
- Sort out your needs rather than giving into something you would like. Dental work is a need, but what about new spectacles, a scarf or a hat?
Good luck! It’s a good exercise whatever you can manage.