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Radical Anti-Consumerism and Reduction of Demand

If you just want to recycle materials or take small (albeit important) steps that are part of Anti consumerism and you ARE otherwise happy with the way things are going in this economy and society, then-this page probably isn't for you.

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If you want material to which you can bring your own experiences and with which you can take further, more serious action, regarding the subjects addressed so far, read on.

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Overcoming Consumerism can be seen as not only a constructive philosophy but as a serious weapon for positive change and also, vengeance. Weapons belong in the hands of people who have a just cause and have to fight for their own survival.

In spite of the economy "Being in the Best Shape That it's Been in For Thirty Years",^tm, (Ok, that was written during the Clinton years), most people find life less secure, more disjointed and it's harder to make connections with those around them. The future, for both you and the Earth, seems more of a threat than a promise. Your expectation of a career, the future vision you had of working life, the Sunny Golden Tomorrow, it's now gone,..gone like last nights furtive dream.

Do you, or your parents, who grew up and prospered in a totally different world and economy, blame these shortcomings on you? Perhaps you didn't make all the right decisions, (notice how the regret is usually expressed in financial terms)...it is, however, the basic circumstances of our lives and livelihoods and society that have changed and it's confronting this change that's addressed in this site.

Whether the economy has turned against you and made your skills and knowledge redundant or you are doing very well financially, but intuit that the pace of change and its direction cannot go on without disaster, something needs to change. The best way to build an economy that values the individual while helping your community and environment is to is to turn your back on consumerism. By doing this you are actively helping to destroy those forces that are ruining our world and in some cases our livelihood.

If, for example, you are an older person, need we say middle aged citizen, that has played by the rules and who has become redundant in the new global economy, you have several choices. You can seek out a minimum wage job, or two or three of them as some must, and if you are lucky enough to find one, wear the corporate-clown uniform and slowly starve to death as you perhaps die for lack of affordable medical care. Or, you could learn about economic self-sufficiency in your community and get out there and become part of it, thus helping not only yourself and your neighbors by taking away money and power from those that have turned on you.

Here are some letters to Forbes Magazine from workers regarding Americans 'not working hard enough. You need to read excellent business journals like this to get the real picture.

"Did anyone in this study take into account how many people are forced to work less hours than 40 because their employers are simply not willing to pay any overtime and more and more of employers are relying on temp and part time employment? This would bring the working hours average down considerably. Also there is a concern with lack of motivation in the workplace, who wants to work for less than they made last year and the year before that? I know of several people who have earned less everyyear for the last 3 years and this is simply not acceptable to an employee whos expecting pay to rise with experienece. The underlining cause behind many of the problems your seeing today are caused by corporate greed, NOT from the citizen. Wake up people!!!Posted By Chris Mason Springfield MO ------------------------------------------------------ I do not beleive Americans are lazy. I beleive our CEO’s just want more in their pockets, and want us to work for less. When we refuse jobs at a low wage they say “Americans don’t work hard enough, and only the illegals will do these jobs”. Posted By Pat Allentown, Pa ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 1965 - one income per household and family farms. Home values equal to two years salary. Job secuity. 2007 - two/three incomes per household no family farms. Home values equal to 7-10 years salary. No job security. Corp. downsizing to part time positions. Yes it appears our youth has decided it isn’t worth the effort. They have grown up in an era of greed and corruption in political and corp. America. People are working harder for much less. May the Clintons and Bushes reap what they have sown for us. Posted By Julie, Port Angeles, WA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Plain greed has put this country where it is at today. I recall a produce clerk being hired into a Kroger Supermarket in 1970 at a rate of close to $10.00 per hour. A new Chevy Caprice in that year was in the $5500.00 dollar range. Over thirty years later the Caprice is now in the 25,000.00 range and the same clerk position is hiring in at 7.50 per hour. Thats over 30 years later people!! Greed on who’s end? I think not the clerks. Posted By Rick, SCS, Mi : October 18, 2007

Consider this alternate vision. You belong to a growing circle of neighbors and friends that have the time and inclination to work together and create a better community. Your economic and personal choices have meaning and make things better for yourself and others. You raise your own vegetables. They're fresh, delicious and cost you little. You have the time to do the things that you want. The Gross National Product goes down because you're not spending as much money to buy food and more things. This is a small example of the kind of change that overcoming consumerism can bring.

The Ponzi Scheme economy.

The key weakness of the really big players who profit from consumerism is the oversupply of goods produced and their need to generate more demand financed by more credit that pays the current debt on past purchases. The preceding sentence is worth rereading.

They are locked in a death spiral of having to seek ever more markets, ever cheaper labor, ever more capital to facilitate ever more efficient production with fewer and fewer workers. Meanwhile there is less and less money in the hands of their potential customers. This is why they spend billions of dollars on advertising that begs you to buy their products, which were they so necessary and of quality, you would just go out and buy, the same way that you buy basic foodstuffs. This is why they facilitate credit at every step along the way, no matter what the consequences to debt encumbered people.

Personal bankruptcies in 1998:
hate to dump the above graphic-but it's outdated: The Number of personal bankruptcies in 2002 =1,547,669

2006? Over 2,000,000 Here's the chart: http://www.abiworld.org/statcharts/CDebt.pdf

Stats from American Bankruptcy Institute.

If you are one of the economically dispossessed, one that is redundant in society, one that is scared to death for your future, than you should help to destroy the very system that has created these conditions and replace it with something better. Let's help push the system over the ever-nearer edge, out of desperation, out of revenge or the hopes for a better and more sustainable future. You control what you buy and how you spend your money. Computers may have replaced your job, but computers don't buy things. The system needs things to be made and bought and people to go into debt and more credit to payoff the old debt. Anything that interrupts that can help bring the system to an end.

Confiscatory Deflation: The Case of Argentina

The necessity to maintain a constant increase in the supply of money lent into existence is one of the hidden motivators behind the promotion of Consumerism by those who profit most from our economy. If there isn't a constant expansion of the money supply created in large part by consumer credit, there isn't enough money to pay back the previous debts and their interest payments. How can you borrow $1,000 at 21% annual interest from a credit card and pay it back a year later if there isn't an extra $210 created in the economy by other people's, or your own, further borrowing? So you pay back the principle and interest and thus even more money is then available to be lent out at interest to purchase more energy containing products and services drawing more from the environment.

Where does the bank or credit card company get the money to lend you? It's basically created out of thin air, with a small percentage, (10% approximately), required to be on deposit with the banks in the form of real assets such as your savings deposits.

Where does the real money to pay back the credit card or bank plus the compounding interest come from? Your hard work, time taken away from your life, that's where. Is a lot of money being made off this scheme? Enough, for example, to influence legislators? Is there anything wrong with this? If you want to explore this issue we recommend Billions for the Bankers, Debts for the People. these are good sites although we do not endorse all their views.

A concise article about this: Things Prudent People Should Know About Their Money and Their Future

Here's a daily blog about financial and other news that affects people's security and livelihood. http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm

If you want the most scholarly, in-depth and readable book on the subject, William Greider is the author most recommended. His Secrets of the Temple; The Federal Reserve and How It Runs America, is a bible on the creation of money, past and present and how banking works.

These forces are turning health care providers into "gate keepers" and second-guessing medical judgment whenever it leads to a higher degree of care that means lower bottom-line profits. It is not possible to pay annual compensation packages of $500,000,000 plus to CEOs, dividends to ever more demanding investors, mostly large financial institutions, and to close local hospitals without someone suffering: that someone is whomever belongs to the HMO, either through increased premiums or decreased services.

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By fighting consumerism you not only help the environment, society and yourself but you help to destroy one of the mechanisms that makes this supply of speculative debt possible: the ever-expanding money supply created through consumer credit.

The Mechanics of what you can do:

One way to go beyond consuming as few resources as possible, to go beyond paying cash and supporting only sustainable businesses,

as elaborated in our previous pages: Resistance,
Two Comparative Families,
Hands-On,

is to create a Reduction of Demand that actually takes away from the manufacture and sales of new items used by not just you but by others as well. This can be done through selling or giving away things rescued from discard, repairing items yourself and destining items to a recipient who can use them.

See Dumpster Diving LinksThis site talks about the incredible finds that people have made and the most successful ways to get perfectly good things that are discarded.

Just as most people can't stand to see animals abused, there are some people who can't stand to see things wasted. They go out of their way to salvage, divert and rescue things so that they can be used by others. They do it not for profit, praise or personal gain, but just because they think it's important.

Craigslist: You know about it of course! If you don't you'll be amazed by what you'll find here. Check out the city by city listings.

See the Barter/Swap/Free section for the San Francisco Bay Area.

Barter: the only way to survive-coming to a neighborhood near you in America?

Argentines look like Americans. Argentina had the fifth highest standard of living in the world in 1900. Many Argentines are highly educated.

Look what has happened to their country. It's a good thing that those ecologists started the original barter club in their garage or most Argentines would be starving.

One small example; of reusing/diverting things to other uses: if you have worn-out 80 pairs of shoes in your life so far, yet you have salvaged 100 useful pairs of shoes by arranging repair or preventing them from being discarded by others and you have provided these to those who can use them, you would be not only making up for the 80 pairs of shoes you have consumed so far, but would also be taking away from the manufacture and sale of 20 pairs of shoes that someone else would use.

Create a Reuse Shelf or Box in some heavily trafficked area around the dumpster or trash cans of your house, apartments, trailer-court, boat dock, or school. Place things there that you don't need anymore or that need repairs you're unwilling to perform.(label it if it has a missing or broken part).

Another example: Year after year you rescue small amounts of building materials from being discarded. Decades go by. You build yourself a simple house. You may end up using less than you have salvaged and provided to others.

The activities mentioned in the paragraphs above are seemingly simple and innocuous but in reality are highly subversive and in the aggregate do wonders for a community and actually do hurt the power structure of those that profit from consumerism.

It is theoretically possible to thus make up for all the material that one has used up in their life and perhaps to even go beyond that amount--it will take a lot of work and time however.

You will never make up for the approximately 22 pounds of Carbon Dioxide that you create for every gallon of gas that you burn in a car unless you plant a huge number of trees. The following shows you just
How you can easily raise and plant trees.

Sooner or later you may want, or have to, raise your own food.
You can grow most of what you eat, even in a city. City farmer site

Learn more about homegrown and organic agriculture crops and plants Don't panic, go organic

We don't always take ourselves too seriously: some of the following is fun and can get the attention and fear of those that promote and profit from consumerism.:

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Print graphics like this one from this link:

Billboard Liberation