sick and tired of new scrap appliances.

[Noirblack]

I guess I should have left out the morbid comic relief from my rant. Naturally, no one will deem you a sociopath for not buying an iPad. On the other hand, there was a time when someone would ask me what my cell number was and I would say, "I don't own a cell phone." I wouldn't just receive dirty looks, I was honestly heckled. Same goes for Facebook - or my lack thereof. No one has deemed me a sociopath, but I'm certainly abnormal, an outsider, an "other" because I don't purchase cellular technology or partake in popular social networking.

Switching gears, if a product is useless, few rational people will buy it. The problem isn't the product however, or its price; the problem is the psychology used behind marketing useless products to mindless consumers. Hey - I'm guilty too! I've found myself purchasing a "Natural Bamboo Cutting Board" because it was a "renewable resource" and because its "aesthetics" were pleasing in my kitchen. Why didn't I just buy the cheaper plastic cutting board? Or better yet, why didn't I just make one myself? As I've said, the difference we're discussing is Value vs. Features.

Cars are built with DVD players and LCD monitors - useless to the purpose of a car. Telephones are built with touchscreens and games - useless to the purpose of a phone. Knife sets are built with fancy handles and color schemes - useless to the purpose of a knife.

Yet, these things are sought after - people trample one another at Wal-Mart on Black Friday to get their hands on them. Why would consumers spend money on an XBOX instead of durable clothing? Or a more dependable car? Or repairable shoes? Or solid kitchenware they can pass down to the next generation?

No, they'd rather have their super clear HD monitors in each room of the house, all purchased on credit, while they wallow in a malnourished state of sorry affairs. Someone sold them on that idea. If you're telling me that's not rampant, sickening Consumerism, than I think we're having a different discussion altogether.

Just a few thoughts...

You can be considered an "other" not only for not making consumer choices, but for political and religious views as well. That's just the way people are. But just as you are free to pick your religion or your politics you are free to pick what you buy.

For a bamboo cutting board vs plastic, for a few dollars difference I wouldn't sweat it. Also, the bamboo board does have one important feature. It won't hang around in a landfill for the tens of thousands of years that it takes for plastic to biodegrade. Perhaps that was part of the reason for purchasing bamboo. That is a feature (one that you can't even experience in your lifetime) and it has a value.

Touch screen phones: this whole category is transforming as we speak. The touch screen enables the phone to be used easily as an information device. Cell phones are rarely used for calls any more. It's all texting to communicate and mobile browsers for getting information when not near a computer.

Cars with DVD players: can you put a price on keeping the kids quiet in the back seat?

Black Friday: I don't take part in it because I am Canadian and this is an American phenomena. But from what I see on the news each year, the big event is fueled by the drive to get low prices. The same products were in the stores the day before, but there was much less interest in purchasing the day before at the regular price. Although it looks completely irrational on the face of it (e.g. people lining up over night) it actually shows how price is a big factor in purchasing decisions. It is rational to seek the lowest price you can get for a product. If a low price means more to a consumer than other factors, such as the overall hectic and busy shopping experience of that day, the consumer will be out shopping on Black Friday.

[Noirblack]

Exactly -- people behave as they do because they were *taught to behave that way.*

*Individuals* aren't the problem here. Nobody's criticizing any individual for the choices they make -- because those individuals are simply doing what they've been raised and conditioned to do by the society they're immersed in. You're considered "normal" for wanting wanting wanting and never being satisfied. You're considered a malcontent, a misfit, a rabble-rouser, or a Red if you don't accept this culture, so of course most people do. They want to fit in. You really can't blame them for it. All any of us can do is point out where the real responsibilities lie and hope at least a few individuals will think about their alternatives.

I can't quite square this with an earlier comment you made, LizzieMaine. You say you don't want to blame these folks, and yet you wish hard times on them:

"People who want to embrace their own chumpitude and play along with the planned obsolescence game have every right to do so, but a society built on such ooh-gimme-the-shiny-trinket acquisitiveness is a society with an exceedingly hollow core. Personally, it'd make me very happy to see the mall-hopping society of today suddenly reduced to scrubbing their washing on a washboard. It might build some character."

[LizzieMaine]

Your interpretation is faulty -- I wouldn't consider scrubbing washing on a washboard to be "hard times" at all. It's good, healthy, honest work that keeps you slim, saves you money, and makes your kitchen smell clean and fresh. It'd do this society a whole lot of good to experience that again.

[Noirblack]

Your interpretation is faulty -- I wouldn't consider scrubbing washing on a washboard to be "hard times" at all. It's good, healthy, honest work that keeps you slim, saves you money, and makes your kitchen smell clean and fresh. It'd do this society a whole lot of good to experience that again.

I guess it was the "reduced to" part of the phrase that threw me

[LizzieMaine]

Well, nobody can deny this society could use a lot of reducing.

Actually, I'd dance with barbarous glee and offer a burnt sacrifice to a graven idol of Ned Ludd himself if I could see something "reduce" society to a much less intrusive, much less pervasive level of technology, one which would make "globalization" impractical, and one which would force society to reevaluate its priorities and live within its means. Whether some sort of controlled cataclysm, a solar flare toasting all the computer chips, or just a mass awakening to common sense, it wouldn't much matter to me. Just the thought of it fills my cold, flinty heart with choirs of angels.

(Please note: the above paragraph is hyperbole, a la Mencken. I'm not actually advocating a cataclysm. But by the same token, I wouldn't be sad if it happened.)

[Noirblack]

Eventually there will be a change to our ability to produce and consume all the goods we have now. That will come when oil runs out. It is the easiest and richest source of power that we have ever found and we use it to the fullest to produce like crazy. Once oil is done, solar, wind, and nuclear will be all we have left. Those won't be suficent to power the economy like oil does. That's when the big changes will come to how we live.

[jamespowers]

Eventually there will be a change to our ability to produce and consume all the goods we have now. That will come when oil runs out. It is the easiest and richest source of power that we have ever found and we use it to the fullest to produce like crazy. Once oil is done, solar, wind, and nuclear will be all we have left. Those won't be suficent to power the economy like oil does. That's when the big changes will come to how we live.

We will never run out of oil for hundreds of years. Don't worry about it.

[LizzieMaine]

Aw, rats. He got my hopes up for nothing.

[Noirblack]

We will never run out of oil for hundreds of years. Don't worry about it.

That's right, I can't offer a quick turnaround time on that one.

[jamespowers]

That's right, I can't offer a quick turnaround time on that one.

"oil is not solely of organic origin, but that there may be another mode of origin as well from deeper in the crust, involving magma." From NASA, we find that oil is NOT only a fossil fuel. It is in fact of other origins as well. Scientists are finding that oil wells thought to be pumped dry have replenished themselves, the amount of oil that has been pumped so far far outweights the amount of organic materials in present models and lastly, oil is being found below the 18,000 foot organic layer.
In other words, oil is going to be around longer then we think.