Keeping up with the Joneses?

There is an interesting write-up in today’s Star which examines the negative correlation between saving and consumerism.

The interview looks author Judith Levine's experience over a ”year without shopping” in promotion of her newly released book on the same subject. Judith managed to save about $8Gs; paring down on her day-to-day spending by “..cutting back on things like soap, movies and clothes” and adopting non-consumerism lifestyle options.

The article caught my eye mainly because of its two (quite bold) opening questions:

1) Sickened by the overarching consumerism that drives our culture?

..... and,

2) Wish you could stop spending money on things you don't actually need?

My favourite part of the interview:

Q. I understand you dealt a lot with trying to define necessity versus want. Is that something a lot of people have trouble with?

A. Yes. In fact, studies show virtually everything people want, they define as needs. So, a person will say, "Well, our family needs three cars." Or, "How can we possibly get along without a housekeeper?" And then someone else looks at them and says, "We get along with one car and no housekeeper, what's their problem?" That's another thing about consumption: it's comparative and it's emulative. You look at other people and you live like them.

I wholeheartedly agree! Those few sentences capture the essence of my frustration with the capitalist society we live in *brace for rant*……

I remember the first time I watched an episode of the horrible, stomach-wrenching MTV creation, My Super Sweet Sixteen . I was sitting in the common room of my all-girl dorm with a few other 1st years (a few of whom were regular viewers of the show) and I literally cringed in horror for the entire half hour – I couldn’t believe how a combination of greed, mass marketing and capitalism came together to focus so intently on the formative minds of North Americans between the ages of 16-25 (yes, 25 year olds watch the show!!). I mean, what parent spends $10 Gs on a teenager's party..

To further our generation's need to keep up appearances, an on-set of social networking sites cropped up (i.e. Twitter, FaceBook ) to herald an age where the lifestyles and extravagances of celebrities and other figures in the public eye are available to us.. at any moment of the day.. feeding the need to accumulate unnecessary material items in the never-ending attempt to stay on top of the newest trends.

I could go on forever on this, but I'm curious ...How often do you find yourself performing an activity (i.e. buying something, going to an event, etc.) to "keep up with the Joneses"?

We'd love to hear your thoughts!

xx