The 10 Commandments of Consumerism

These are the unspoken, unwritten, yet clearly understood, 10 Commandments of Consumerism:



1. Thou shalt never rent things, or buy previously used/desecrated goods. 

2. Thou shalt never fix or repair anything.

3. Thou shalt increase thy pace of shopping indefinitely, until death.

4. Thou shalt never consider the social, ethical, and environmental responsibilities of the actors in the system.

5. Thou shalt covet the Jones's stuff, and try to out-buy them.

6. Thou shalt shop endlessly even when thee doth not need a thing.

7. Thou shalt never be content with just enough as long as too much is available.

8. Thou shalt deny any and all negative effects of basing life on rank materialism.

9. Thou shalt work as much as possible to make as much money as possible, then spend it all as fast as possible. Thou deservith it.

10. Thou shalt borrow as much money as credit limits allow, at any interest rate, to buy more stuff and keep up the appearance of success. 



What about the 10 Commandments of Simple Living? They don't exist, because unlike the conformity of consumerism, approaches to simplicity are as beautiful and varied as the people who take it up as a guiding principle in their lives.

Besides, I can only think of one Commandment of Simplicity. 

That would be:

1. Never use more of anything when less would suffice.




Warning: The 10 Commandments of Consumerism are largely unaffected by the particular brand of buying. 

Green Consumerism, New Consumerism, Conscious Consumerism and other lame lies like these are all variations on a broken, irredeemable theme.