“Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption…we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.”–Post World War II quote from Victor LeBeau, retailing analyst
The Story of Stuff was a short 20-minute video that covered a lot of material about our consumer throw-away culture. The creator spent 10 years traveling the world, tracking where stuff goes. A few interesting (and horrifying) facts:
- The United States takes up 5% of the world’s space, yet uses 30% of the world’s resources.
- We produce 4 billion pounds of toxic chemicals a year.
- Human breast milk is now toxic because of all the chemicals produced in the country.
- We consume twice as much as we did 50 years ago.
- Dioxin is one of the most toxic substances in the world. Incinerators are the #1 source of it. We burn a lot of our waste in the U.S. via incinerators.
What I found most interesting, though, were the concepts of “planned obsolescence” and “perceived obsolescence”. Because 99% of the stuff we buy is trash within 6 months, all that stuff is essentially designed for the dump. It’s an idea that designers discuss all the time. The example they used in the video was how computers are updated each year. In actuality, the only part that changes is this tiny little chip. But instead of just changing out the chip, a whole new computer is designed, forcing consumers to just completely throw away the old computer. That’s kind of evil if you ask me.
The other concept, perceived obsolescence, involves advertisers putting their focus on making us unhappy with what we have. Our consumer culture gives us the message that if you don’t own or buy a lot of stuff, you don’t have value. Remember the bumper sticker “The guy with the most toys wins”? It’s that kind of concept. For example, fashions change rapidly so that you have to buy the next new thing or you’re not cool, you’re not relevant. This is kind of evil too.
The thing is, though, polls are showing that we are unhappier than ever. The time America was happiest was in 1950, and you can almost correlate the escalation of consumer goods production with the escalation of human unhappiness. We’re working harder than ever so we can buy more stuff. We have less leisure time than ever, so we don’t spend time doing the things that actually matter: spending time with friends and family, doing art, traveling, reading. In the little time we do have, we watch TV, get exposed to more advertising that makes us want to buy more stuff, and then go shopping.
Meanwhile, while we stay hooked on these pretty superficial things, other things that really matter suffer: health care, social justice, the environment, education. This, the video tells us, is the true cost of consumption. Our priorities are mixed up, and we’re creating a world that values stuff over substance. Some really great stuff to think about.