How much more can we consume?

We all live in a society based around consumerism, materialism, mass culture and the endless quest for wealth and goods.

Millions of products pour from the conveyer-belts each day. Just as millions of people head down to their high streets to buy these products each day. Just as millions of dollars pour into the bank accounts of the corporations and super-rich each day. This obscene and mindless process depletes the limited resources of this planet day by day, and it cannot go on forever.

I'm not just talking about oil here, but any and every natural resource that is used up every day because it can be transformed into an object of material, and hence monetary value.

The question I put to you is, how long will this last before we've consumed everything that can possibly be consumed? And what then? Our lives will be truly empty when this day comes.

Also, just out of curiousity, how many actually people agree with this messed up culture of materialism, consumerism, wealth, celebrity and spiritual destitution? We all live this life, so some of us must agree with it.

There's nothing wrong with consumption. It helps weed out the weak. When the idiots die from brain tumors brought on by overusing their cell phone...or die from a McHeart Attack with fries and a milkshake...it gives us other folks more air to breathe.

...and more space. Lord knows we need more of that.

I need room to build an inground pool, anyone here having chest pains?

I don't want people to tell me what I can and can't put inside of me, so I'm not going to tell someone to put that big mac down. If it pleases you, do it.

The OP must not comsume anything.


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EDIT and FYI: OP means Original Poster. And I had points subtracted from my total by forum mod Gools for a one-line post, so I guess start being careful about what you post.






[edit on 5-5-2005 by zerotime]

In a way, I think that if we continue to progress scientifically and technologically at a rate that exceeds our consumption, then it might be possible that we could continue to consume at a rate that would remain unabated. Keep in mind that this would mean that as resources dwindled on Earth, we could expand to the Moon, to Mars and, well, the Universe is the limit. Of course, there are a lot of "ifs" here. Still, this is the only way that I think that we could continue. But we also have to ask ourselves whether we really consume anything. Doesn't everything recycle? Nothing is truly destroyed. Even our waste can be a resource.

Alot of recent data suggestics that world population is going to peek in the next few decades. We're not the only country with a baby boomer generation follwed by progressively smaller generations, China and India are seeing it too. I think we over-consume aswell, and I could definately do without the celebrity magizines and product endorsement deals, but I'd be willing to bet we're not as bad off as it seems. Besides I think the days of mass over-consuption are numbered, alot of it is gonna die off with the babyboomers. Why have a library of a 1000 cd's in your house when they could all fit on an i-pod, why eat McDonalds everyday when by now everyone knows it's bad for ya. We'll always be consumers but we're moving on to new products, and alot it is better for us then what we've seen before. How much of what we consume will be virtual versus tangible in the next few decades?

Sorry double post. Dodgy internet connection.

Peace

[edit on 6-5-2005 by Abstrakt]

Originally posted by Lysergic
I don't want people to tell me what I can and can't put inside of me, so I'm not going to tell someone to put that big mac down. If it pleases you, do it.

Not everything you consume is supposed to go inside you. If it did then i'd be very worried about the size and shape of your orifices.

This is not a rant about how unhealthy McDonalds is. I'm talking about everything we consume, from washing machines and refrigerators to the latest vanity product for your eye lashes. All the products we buy are using up natural resources, and they're not being replaced fast enough with the pathetic recycling system that most western countries have.

Originally posted by benevolent tyrant
But we also have to ask ourselves whether we really consume anything. Doesn't everything recycle? Nothing is truly destroyed. Even our waste can be a resource.

Most of the waste we produce either gets incinerated, or we dig a hole in the ground for it and put it there. A very small percentage is actually recycled. So yes, we consume a lot infact. Make a note of how much you rubbish you put out for the binmen this week. Then think about how much you've put out in a whole year. Then multiply that by the number of people in your city, then your country, then all the western world. That is how much we consume.

Originally posted by looking4truth
Why have a library of a 1000 cd's in your house when they could all fit on an i-pod, why eat McDonalds everyday when by now everyone knows it's bad for ya. We'll always be consumers but we're moving on to new products, and alot it is better for us then what we've seen before. How much of what we consume will be virtual versus tangible in the next few decades?

I agree. Thats the positive way to look at it. Although most virtual consumption is still going on-line to buy products which have to be delivered. If by virtual consumtion you mean going online to buy and download music and movies, then yes that could save a lot in the way of packaging.

I know what i'm saying sounds like old hippie rhetoric from the nineties. But who says we shouldn't listen to it just because it was said by the "F-ing hippies". The obscene amount of waste isn't my only dislike of modern mass-culture, just one of it's many flaws. It will be intersting to see what happens when the materialistic foundations of this culture dissappear because there are little or no materials left to exploit. Maybe we'd actually have to think about this kinda stuff!