05/11/2020
In general, people neither need, not want to spend on lots of things. A large slice of the population is quite content with a very simple life.
Example: Slackers and those on government dole. They have enough to live on and no real ambition to earn more. If they really wanted more, they would do things to improve their situation. Some do this through illicit means: Prostitution, or black market: drugs. Others learn a trade, start a coffee shop or internet business.
That is one reason I say to make drugs legal: so they are safe, pure and standard quality so people don’t get sick. The other reason is to undermine drug gangs, the mafia end abuse killings, smaller gangs, and robbery.
The same for prostitution. And also to prevent r**e. Though we will always have that, at least it can be reduced greatly. And legalization prevents the spread of disease. With Medicare for all, even s*x workers can get treatment, and not fall into drug abuse, etc.
But going back to my first point. Why do we have over-consumption? Advertising. Convincing people they are inadequate and need things they don’t really need.
You feel you are not looked down on if you doll yourself up with expensive, health-damaging makeup, toxic nails and salon products, and a crapload of health and environmental damaging products on your lawn so it looks like the perfect golf turf you see Jesus walking on in you Sunday School Bible class.
I have to admit, I get a boost when I go to Starbucks-
Oh, yes, I AM a good person! I am with the “IT” crowd!
ANd when I go to Mc Donald’s: “Yes, I am a REAL AMERICAN! I’m a good person doing the right thing. I fit in!”
The point is you DON’T need all that stuff, but your desire was manufactured by a very expensive and well-thought out marketing plan studying colors, smells, and psychology. They examine your reptilian brain, go around your conscious thought to hit your animalistic core values and needs.
Why all this show? So people can prey on you to take your money. In Europe there are a lot less commercials on the street and on TV. Children in high school are also given media studies to show them how people can manipulate them politically and commercially. This is a type of literacy we don’t have in the us. We just see it as normal and correct and right. You expect to be manipulated and told what to want, wear, eat and buy. That is part of MATRIX that was refered to in that movie, but I’m setting aside the notion of whether we are living in a simulation, which is possible, but impossible to prove, thus irrelevant.
So, back to consumption. In our native forms, left to ourselves without manipulation from commercials, we are content with a lot less.
And overconsumption is the reason for environmental destruction, economic swings, and wars.
But first we have to see what the problem is, and how we are being tricked and cheated. If you don’t understand that, we get more of the same, and worse. If we keep going as things are, it’s game over for us and the world.
Some on the fringe think this is the elite’s End Game: to create chaos and destruction to wipe out the poor and middle classes and upper middle classes and most of the lower rich so they have the whole paradise of the world to themselves, and their needs taken care of my robots and AI.
Sitting in traffic on IH-35, you might even agree with them.
I mean, wouldn’t it be nice to live in “Disneyland” forever, and never have to go home? No lines, great food, and s*x whenever you wanted it, trouble-free? Many people I think would agree. But we are not going to be part of that. We will be part of the chaff swept away.
So until we are all in our pleasure VR pods like Neo in the MATRIX, we will have to work for a more egalitarian world. Or we can just continue this endless half-functioning society that we have now with traffic, stupid politicians and wondering if we should go to the gun store.
Your choice.
