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Consuming as little as possible gives me immense personal benefits, such as being free from what appears to be a ubiquitous lust for more. I am content with very little, and want for nothing. But there are other benefits, such as not supporting a system that encourages this lust.
There are people (more specifically, male people), that have become immensely wealthy promoting infinite economic growth and infinite want fulfillment. I'm not buying anything from them. I am not into making millionaires, or helping build billionaires.
And I am certainly not interested in transforming them into trillionaires, a extreme wealth milestone that we are predicted to pass in the near future. Maybe I am strange, but this scenario seems completely irrational to me. Why is this seen as a good thing, rather than a money-hoarding mental illness?
"Two generations ahead, future extrapolation of current wealth growth rates yields almost a billion millionaires, equivalent to 20% of the total adult population. If this scenario unfolds, then billionaires will be commonplace, and there is likely to be a few trillionaires too -- eleven according to our best estimate."
- Credit Suisse's 2013 Global Wealth Report
It was recently reported that now 6 men own as much wealth as the bottom 50% of the planet's population (about 3.6 billion people). I'm not buying into any part of a system that encourages, enables and celebrates such morbid inequality.
The capitalists say not to worry because "we are all getting richer". But if someone making a dollar a day is "lucky" enough to see their wage increase by 100%, they are still only making 2 dollars a day, buying them a slightly better form of poverty. Not good enough.
Who will be the world's first trillionaire? Who cares? I would be happy if there was never such a grotesque entity to ever stalk the Earth. In a just world, there wouldn't be any such thing. I am not buying their crap, and I am not buying their ideology that allows such insanity to exist on a planet imperilled by the infinite lust for more.
Not Buying Anything does not support Morbid Inequality. Luckily there are more of us than them. There is a way out of this.
It's satisfying to me to resist by not contributing to the bloated wealth on the top by reducing my purchases, significantly. My budget demands I do this, but I'd be doing this anyway. I pretty much suck at being a materialist. I take an occasional trip to see family. It's a rare thing these days, but I go camping sometimes. Now that I have some friends, I'm car pooling even on trips that are a short distance like 5 miles away. I combine trips to get groceries and the few other places I go. We need a lot more folks doing this, I mean grossly reducing their spending.
ReplyDeleteSome of these rich people owe their wealth to a over valued stock market that is a bubble waiting to burst. It's strange that Windo$e makes so much money when there is a superior free product in Linux.
ReplyDeleteIt's getting increasingly harder to get returns on investment and property is a attractive making it unaffordable for many. China has huge property bubble and it's stock market is certainly over valued. The Chinese stock market wanted to crash last year and was stopped through government intervention.
The banking system would have collapsed in 2007, but was bailed out. The profits were capitalized and the losses socialized.
This could be stopped if people became more aware. Why use 'free' monitoring spyware:
https://stallman.org/
People can use their money ethically and use building societies and credit unions:
http://moveyourmoney.org.uk/
Consume less and invest in sustainability. Do things without a profit motive such as making a environment in your garden for animals and diversity.
Peace,
Alex
Consumerism is inequality is destruction is sadness. It is sick that there are wealthy and poor. Everyone should have what they need and the world has the resources for this. How can someone justify being a millionaire when even one person can't even afford a roof over their head?
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine why anyone would need or want to amass so much money, it seems like a bizarre raison d'etre.
ReplyDeleteI decided to investigate whether any of these guys give much away. I read that Bill Gates has given away 28 billion to charitable causes, mostly to health and education initiatives in developing countries, and that Warren Buffet has given away even more. This is a good thing, but sadly doesn't get to the root causes of poverty. Ultimately we will all face poverty if we keep damaging our soil and water the way we have in the past. Perhaps greed is the deadliest of the 7 deadly sins?
Madeleine.x