Quotes About Consumerism

Sometimes I can't stop myself from buying things just because I see them - even when I don't really need them.

It's great for people to give out of the kindness of their hearts, but because we're in a consumerist society, it's also great to have the opportunity to give and get.

I haven't seen kids in years who have holes in the knees of their jeans. Now you go buy jeans with holes in them.

Part of the reason young people are getting involved with gangs, leading to the use of guns and knives, is not the lack of stop and search but the individualistic, consumerist society we live in.

You can't just buy things for the label - it's ridiculous.

Don't identify yourself with labels and brands and have to buy every cute thing you see. Invest in the things that will grow in equity.

Now you know how I justify my addictions—if I can pay less for it than I would at Wal-Mart, I get to have it.

Progress makes purses out of human skin.

The essence of that industrial system is the cradle-to-grave manufacturing supply chain of take, make, use, lose: extract Earth's minerals, metals, biomass and fossil fuels; manufacture them into products; sell those on to consumers who—probably sooner rather than later—will throw them 'away'.

What might we aspire to instead, if not more possessions? 'Wherever and whenever we are excessive in our lives it is the sign of an as yet unknown deprivation,' argues the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips. 'Our excesses are the best clue we have to our own poverty, and our best way of concealing it from ourselves.'72 When it comes to consumerism, perhaps the poverty that we aim to conceal lies in our neglected relationships

Lastly, how are we socially locked in, addicted to and stuck on GDP growth? Through the culture of consumerism and the tensions created by inequality, which in turn are rooted in the need for something to aspire to. Despite being far richer than kings of old, we are too easily trapped on a treadmill of consumerism, continually searching for identity, connection and self-transformation through the things that we buy.

Wherever and whenever we are excessive in our lives it is the sign of an as yet unknown deprivation,' argues the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips. 'Our excesses are the best clue we have to our own poverty, and our best way of concealing it from ourselves.'72 When it comes to consumerism, perhaps the poverty that we aim to conceal lies in our neglected relationships with each other and with the living world.

Reversing consumerism's financial and cultural dominance in public and private life is set to be one of the twenty-first century's most gripping psychological dramas

As economist Tim Jackson deftly put it, we are 'persuaded to spend money we don't have on things we don't need to make impressions that won't last on people we don't care about'.

Can you be happy with the movies, and the ads, and the clothes in the stores, and the doctors, and the eyes as you walk down the street all telling you there is something wrong with you? No. You cannot be happy. Because, you poor darling baby, you believe them.

A.J. has often reflected that, bit by bit, all the best things in the world are being carved away like fat from meat. First, it had been the record stores, and then the video stores, and then newspapers and magazines, and now even the big chain bookstores were disappearing everywhere you looked. From his point of view, the only thing worse than a world with big chain bookstores was a world with NO big chain bookstores.

IQ is a commodity, data is a commodity. I'm far more interested in watching people interact at a restaurant with their smartphone. We can all read 'Tech Crunch ' 'Ad Age.' I would rather be living in the trenches. I would rather be going to Whole Foods in Columbus Circle to watch people shop with their smartphones.

So it is always preferable to discuss the matter of veganism in a non-judgemental way. Remember that to most people, eating flesh or dairy and using animal products such as leather, wool, and silk, is as normal as breathing air or drinking water. A person who consumes dairy or uses animal products is not necessarily or usually what a recent and unpopular American president labelled an "evil doer.

The hotel has turned into a supermarket of sleep.

However, as pursuit of happiness morphed into pursuit of material, all of the promises became compromised. So what went wrong? How did this happen?

For years, well before consumer tracking became the norm, Radio Shack stores would routinely ask their customers for their addresses and phone numbers. For a while I just refused, but that was socially awkward. Instead, I got in the habit of replying with "9800 Savage Road, Columbia, MD, 20755": the address of the NSA.

Retail store surveillance systems register our presence, even if we are doing nothing but browsing and even if we pay for everything in cash.

People who might once have bought a newspaper to beguile themselves now look at their Android. Magzines readers look at their Android, too. Amazingly, even manufactures of chewing gum have taken a hit, because nervously chewing while staring out the window has become nervously tapping while staring into a handled screen.

If you do not grasp the difference between orange juice and detergent, brand names will at best help you drink the finest detergent on the market, and wash your dishes with the right amount of pulp.