Consumption is great when you get something in return that improves your life in some way. Convenience, saving time, and things that you use are all great.
However, there’s a ton of consumption in terms of buying things that don’t add utility, at least not at a reasonable return. People buy exercise bikes that they don’t use, books that they don’t read, panini presses that just sit on the counter, and lives become more cluttered and less enjoyable.
One reason for this is the hedonic treadmill, that our happiness reverts to a mean over time, so pleasure from an item doesn’t last. Another is that people envision the good outcomes for buying something—I’ll use that gym membership 3 times a week! -- but are bad at estimating the range of outcomes and so overestimate what they get for many purchases.
It turns out for many purchases (though probably a minority of them), you would be better off in terms of happiness if you bought nothing instead. High happiness ROI spending seems to be events rather than items, giving gifts, meaningful charity, and saving yourself time.
New cars, trendy clothes, the latest gadgets, and other hallmarks of modern consumerism, have a low return on spending, and pushing back against that may help people overall.
An analogy: food is delicious and necessary, but certain common patterns in how people eat are bad, even by the poor eater’s own values and preferences. That seems bad in a similar way, and opposing trends that increase such bad patterns seems sensible.
Here’s one argument:
Consumption is great when you get something in return that improves your life in some way. Convenience, saving time, and things that you use are all great.
However, there’s a ton of consumption in terms of buying things that don’t add utility, at least not at a reasonable return. People buy exercise bikes that they don’t use, books that they don’t read, panini presses that just sit on the counter, and lives become more cluttered and less enjoyable.
One reason for this is the hedonic treadmill, that our happiness reverts to a mean over time, so pleasure from an item doesn’t last. Another is that people envision the good outcomes for buying something—I’ll use that gym membership 3 times a week! -- but are bad at estimating the range of outcomes and so overestimate what they get for many purchases.
It turns out for many purchases (though probably a minority of them), you would be better off in terms of happiness if you bought nothing instead. High happiness ROI spending seems to be events rather than items, giving gifts, meaningful charity, and saving yourself time.
New cars, trendy clothes, the latest gadgets, and other hallmarks of modern consumerism, have a low return on spending, and pushing back against that may help people overall.
An analogy: food is delicious and necessary, but certain common patterns in how people eat are bad, even by the poor eater’s own values and preferences. That seems bad in a similar way, and opposing trends that increase such bad patterns seems sensible.