One of the favorite complaints of G-20 protesters and of environmentalists is that too many people are consumerists. Now this is just a terrible thing to be. Imagine people making goods and services available to others who will voluntarily pay them money in exchange. This is awful. This is pornographically obscene!
No, it is much, much better if in the name of the planet and to prevent workers from exploitation, we simply hire large numbers of government thugs to keep us from producing goods and services and from going shopping. This is the way for nice people to go.
Down the road, when we are all poor and huddling masses, unplagued by consumerism, we will all be so, so happy.
ya well, amybe we should pile up more stuff, extra handbags and usefull stuff money can buy and if we are not lucky to be happy, consume more drugs to make us happier. Have personal drugstores in our homes, since it's already been empirically shown consuming ad nauseam generally makes everything better.
ReplyDeleteMel, I think I will leave it to each individual to determine for themselves how many consumer goods and services they want to acquire. Some will over-indulge in some things, at least according to my taste, but it is not for me to micromanage their lives.
ReplyDeleteOf course if I were required to make decisions for everyone else, they would buy many more books and many more spectrometers and other scientific equipment than they now do. They would buy many fewer cars, drink less alcohol, never smoke, almost never go to movies in the theaters, and hardly ever buy popular music CDs. So you had better ask yourself if you really want me making these decisions for you. I am very sure I do not want you making these decisions for me!
But, I do wish you personal happiness as a result of whatever decisions you make in your life, as long as you are not made happy by using force to keep others from pursuing their happiness as they see fit.