Quotes About Consumerism

Capitalism sold a flat white to me as if it were a cup of freedom.

I imagined that a better world would be less complicated, less involved, and with less need to mass produce doorknobs and lock sets, electric outlets, power cords, frozen chicken wings, packages of steak, rubber bands, and a million little foam earbuds that slip over the broadcasting end of an iPod. I'd stand staring at Jenna's room, the recycling porch, and imagine what my life would be like if I could squeeze all my worldly possessions into a space like that.

The clerisy imagined in the nineteenth century nationalism, socialism, imperialism, and racism. Such theories resulted during the twentieth century in actually existing socialism and nationalism and national-socialist-racist imperialism, and the butcher bill for them all. In the late twentieth century the clerisy turned its hand to theorizing evil consumerism and environmental decay. Uh-oh. Watch out, dears, for fresh results in the twenty-first century.

wasn't. This stutter-step of disaster after natural disaster was just a blip next to LED lights, driverless cars, a possible end to poverty through gene-edited crops. Mulled wine and stockings over the fireplace. Crisp smell of the six-foot fir that had been cut down so it could be adorned with plastic and glass baubles that polluted the house. As the tree died in celebration, there in our family room. Maybe I was withdrawn during their

Windows plastered with advertisements for all the things we were supposed to want that were killing us.

Indeed, it was the British Empire that, in tandem with the American democratic capitalist system, created the global economy as we know it, based as it is on consumer-driven markets, rule of law, and the ideal—at least in North America, Europe, and a growing number of emerging nations—of free and open societies. Especially

Science has yet to isolate the Godiva Chocolate or Prada gene, but that doesn't mean your weakness for pricey swag isn't woven into your DNA. According to a new study of identical twins, it's less TV ads or Labor Day sales that make you buy the things you do than the tastes and temperaments that are already part of you at birth.

Credit or debit cards, for starters, are nothing short of shoppers' Novocain. Even in the age of digital purchases and virtual money, we still attach a special value to dirty paper with pictures of presidents on it. Handing some of that to a cashier simply hurts more than handing over a little sliver of plastic.

I'm for insurrection on three fronts: insurrection in the street, insurrection with the ballot box and insurrection with our wallets. The more we divorce ourselves from paying money for corporate products we don't even need, the less we are a part of the problem.

Maybe we don't recognize satisfaction because it is disguised as radical generosity, a strange misnomer in a consumer culture.

we are the richest people on earth, praying to get richer. We're tangled in unmanageable debt while feeding the machine, because we feel entitled to more. What does it communicate when half the global population lives on less than $2 a day, and we can't manage a fulfilling life on twenty-five thousand times that amount? Fifty thousand times that amount?

This is why my clothes come from Target; I'm there for Sharpies, so I guess I'll buy this shirt facing the aisle.

Then into the trash, la de da. For the bargain price of a dollar, I receive sixteen ounces of tap water and contribute to the waste crisis.

Thank you, Department Stores, for the flickering fluorescent lights, dingy yellow wall paint, and adjustable mirrors in the dressing room where I try on bathing suits. You are why I drink.

I manage to feel guilty one way or another, no matter which purchasing priority wins the day. I've either spent too much, bought cheap processed junk, or I've subsidized the sweat shop industry. Even simplifying can be complicated. GAH!

Excess has impaired perspective in America.

I still believe in the Holy Trinity, except now it's Target, Trader Joe's, and IKEA.

Chances are excellent that deep down you're scared to stop overspending because you're trying to fill an emotional hole with stuff and experiences.

She's got a big belt around her hips. It has a shiny buckle with PRADA on it, which is Italian for insecure.

People are bored. They're dead! Go to a shopping mall and check out the faces. I did this for years—I'd drive out to the malls on weekends and just sit there watching people, trying to figure it out. What's missing? What do they need? What's the next step? And then I got it: imagination . We've lost the ability to make things up. We've farmed out that job to the entertainment industry, and we sit around and drool on ourselves while they do it for us.

It's just like Darren to worry about poor people in China while giving no thought to poor people in America, who need Walmart because they can't afford to shop anywhere else—a losers' club Rich feels, eternally, on the brink of joining, if he hasn't already.

In the grip of madness, materialism begins to look like an admirable belief system.

And the motive for all this subterfuge? Simple. Something his Nano had told him a long time ago. "People buy comfort," she had said, slitting a pig's throat with a corn sickle. "If you make them comfortable, then they will buy whatever you are selling." The combination of wisdom and arterial blood spray was irresistible and Hillman never forgot his grandmother's lesson.

There was nothing on the TV. Except pay-per-view and I refuse to buy programmes, on principle. Except that chef guy with the foul mouth.