Your way of living is very strongly opposed to the idea that people should be able to purchase an unlimited number of products to the extent that their freedom is compromised. And, why would people spend most of their money on buying unnecessary things? Because they are trying to be happy, and shopping is the easiest and the fastest way to fulfill that urge, say most of the for-profit companies. You are not into consumerism.
You actually did not have to free yourself from consumerism because you had not ever been trapped by this 21st-century addiction – the idea of buying to feel satisfied in life. You have always refused to approach anything that has anything to do with the consumeristic lifestyle.
If possible, you avoid going to the shopping malls, shopping online, wearing clothes with big logos, watching the mainstream TV, paying attention to the Internet banners, reading colorful magazines to avoid looking at advertisements and participating in the events organized for the masses.
You prefer quiet activities such as going for a walk or running in the park, writing a blog post about improving quality of life or reading a book. You choose to stay free from any paid-form of entertainment such as amusement parks of cinemas displaying action movies full of crime scenes.
When it comes to shopping, which is kind of unavoidable to all of us, you buy only what you really need, therefore avoiding desires, stay away from the newest trends and fashions, pay attention to your personal buying habits, calculate carefully how much money you spend every month. You do not go shopping, if you do not have to.
You know, you are a really bad customer for all of those corporations because you do exactly the opposite of what their CEOs and managers want millions of people to do. You totally do not listen to their advertising messages which sound like that ‘The Best Drink Created Worldwide’ (a soft drink producer), ‘Kiss Happiness’ (another soft drink producer), ‘We Love to see you smile’ (a fast food chain).
You really do not have to buy more things to make you life happier, better, more smiley, so thanks corporate guys, but no, you cannot sell you happiness because it is something that cannot be sold! A simple glass of lemon water can make your day, or a kiss from your wife.
You also try to work less keeping healthy work-life balance. You will never ever work for corporations which pay poor salaries for the amount of effort employees put in their work, or force employees to work in the night because of the upcoming deadline; being busy depends on priorities, and it should never be your priority to make someone else rich.
You will never work for anyone who treats people with disrespect, damages your self-esteem, does not listen to your needs, tries to bring you down at work, does not have good products and vision for the future, lacks integrity and honesty, or criticizes who you are as a person.
You pay a lot of attention to the health of your family – exercising regularly, eating healthy food instead of fast food and maintaining healthy financial situation. Exercising is an amazing way to deal with stress and anger.
You usually make your own decisions and do not value input from others, especially strangers, unless they are old friends or a trusted family member who has never disappointed you. What is more, you will never put your family at risk by being in debt, so no creditors will ever have a chance to hold you captive.
You are totally free of the consumerist mindset and the above is not idealizing. You have intentionally lived for years a simple life with less. And, you buy local products as often as you can and embrace eco-conscious shopping. You try to buy fruits and vegetables from a local grocery store which is owned and run by small entrepreneurs rather than big supermarket chains. Even though the groceries will be slightly expensive, but they will be almost always fresh.
You also have clearly shaped spending habits: know exactly what to buy, where to buy, and how much should be spent on certain products. You rarely try new products and you are not loyal to a certain brand, but you are will be loyal to high quality, especially value for money stuff.
You am not interested in the materialistic world and do not care about gaining acceptance from other people by wearing a certain brand of clothes. You value greater things in life such as intelligence, spirituality and personal development over seeking happiness and joy in consumption and the desire to possess.
Additionally, you have bigger idealistic dreams of helping millions of people to live better quality lives than dreaming about new tech gadgets, expensive cars or making quick money from your blog. You are always opened to promote high-quality products that are good for people, environmentally friendly and benefit the society in the long-term. But, you will never recommend unethical products or services.
You stay aware that you have to pay by yourself for anything you need or want, including food, clothing, shelter and other necessities, and that nobody will ever give you anything for free. Nobody will do laundry, clean the dishes and do other household duties for you.
That is why you nurture the idea that it is hard work to maintain the possessions of life. If you have kids in the future, you will try to educate them in the same matter, so they can become anti-consumerists. And they can create a strong sense of ownership, a better understanding of the relationship between work, money and consumerism. The most importantly, you will never trade your moral values for material possessions.
Because you remember that what matters the most is not what you own, but who you really am.
A big enemy of consumerism = Anti-consumerist
Many people have already had in their lives everything that they need in order to be happy: a safe place to live; a few pieces of clothes to stay warm; food to eat such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, clean water to drink; law order; a family and a few friends. They should feel extremely fortunate about their condition because there are still so many people in the world who, for example, do not have a loving or complete family.
But some of those people, despite all this amazing abundance of good stuff, are still not satisfied with what they have, always desiring to own more.
Of course, you do not encourage anyone to stop going shopping to buy different things, because we all need to fulfill our needs and provide for our families. You do not want you to become a monk or a nun and live your life in solitude either. Neither you have to sell all of your belongings and live in poverty. That is not your point.
However, thinking about consumption all day long, dreaming of having more objects than we really need, is risky to our minds. Being chained by consumerism, which developed through the process of globalization, is the evil that traps many people, who will feel lack of power to change or improve their situation. By having the tendency to identify with products and brands, they are ready to spend significant amount of time and money sacrificing personal freedom.
They forget that freedom, not possessions, is a real power.
Anti-consumerism in practice: Wear your clothes until worn out
You have already got to know yourself so well to realize how exciting you are about alternative lifestyles. You definitely do not follow fashion trends, or waste hours of your free time in the shopping malls hunting for brand new collections.
To deny your participation in the craze for modernity and consumerist culture, you have come up with the rule that you have been following devotedly, and which helped you to simplify your life. The rule says that you do not buy new clothes until your current clothes or shoes have not been completely worn out to the extent that you cannot use them anymore.
Some pairs of jeans and sweaters in your wardrobe you have been wearing for years. Your last pair of winter shoes was with your for the last 15 years. You bought them when you were in the middle school and luckily your shoe size has not changed since then. You refuse to buy a new pair of sports shoes until you can see both your toes, or there is the hole in your shoe causing the asphalted road to scrub your foot.
Wearing clothes out until they are totally broken is an amazing thing to do because it frees you from buying new stuff over and over again. You save lots of time and money that you would otherwise spend on shopping, and at the same time, buying less leaves you with more free space in your apartment. Every time when you had to relocate to a new apartment in recent years, you managed to pack all your belongings into just a few small boxes.
You can highly recommend managing your closet in that way – buying a few clothes of a very high quality which you can wear for years. You will be free from constant clutter, do less laundry on weekly basis and save yourself tons of money.
Then, you can spend your savings on doing something fun, yet educational, instead of wasting cash on rags sold by multinational retail-clothing companies.
What specifically you do not like about consumerism?
Owning as many things as you possibly do does not interest you at all. You prefer to be totally free to decide about your own life rather than owning many new objects, whether designer clothes or expensive cars.
You do not like the modern idea promoted around the world that people have to make as much money as possible in order to spend more on shopping, buy a bigger house, another car when one is not enough, purchase luxury products because a neighbor just bought herself a new bag, spend on kitschy entertainment every weekend.
There is this crazy cycle that has been going on in the world for a few decades now, since the multi-national companies have started creating the world order, that promotes the idea of all kids having to go to school. At school, they are taught to obediently follow instructions set by teachers and administrators (instead of learning to think for themselves and making their own decisions) and answer multiple-choice questions. And as a reward for being great at it, the best students will find well-paid corporate jobs that pay a lot of money, so they can buy more products.
You do not like being a customer either. And, you hate the concept that companies exist in order to maximize profit, because then, employees and anyone with an interest in a business will be tempted to do immoral things. For example, a manager whose paycheck is related to performance may ask his subordinates such as sales agents, to give up their free time just to close ‘a very important deal’ on the weekend, the time which employees are supposed to be spending with their families.
You live your live focusing on something totally different than what corporations try to achieve. Your put all of your efforts in becoming a more developed human thanks to the power of thoughts, not the power of objects. Unfortunately, not many corporations sell stuff that can help you to become a better person.
One can argue that computers help people to gain more knowledge faster, but you claim that, first, we do not need certain knowledge because having too much choice can negatively impact our decision-making abilities, and second, technology makes people less productive taking precious time away from those who spend hours in front of the monitor being distracted by social media and all that stuff.
You do not like corporations which sell soulless products that look exactly the same and break down after a few months. Our personalities are so different from one another, so why cannot we surround ourselves with custom-made products only? The nature of corporations is to create demand in the society, dragging millions of people into shops thanks to the power of manipulative advertising.
And, many people cannot really resist buying something new because they want to show off in front of their office mates, or to feel better for a second, therefore some getting into large debt. And that is the area in which people are being taken advantage of by corporations.
But many customers do not know about that because the current education system does not teach kids how corporations manipulate people. Neither many families can afford to send their children to business schools which sell recipes to the future managers of how to influence others.
You do not like that people are told by bogus marketing specialists that their daily problems, everything that people struggle with, can be solved by consumption. Because by believing in that message, millions of people become slaves to corporations by buying stuff they do not even need.
The marketing departments will convey the message saying that shopping will reduce stress, that entertainment will fulfill the need of true happiness, that packaged and canned food instead of freshly cooked meals will save time, that debt can be fixed by reading financial books or listening to the bank employees who kindly offer another mortgage.
The corporations will never tell us the whole truth about what they are really trying to sell. Big companies will rarely assure us that their products will deliver on the promise.
So, you avoid making deals with multinational companies which sell products of mediocre or low quality, and with anyone that lacks integrity.
Every time you stick to value-for-money products, which give you the maximum benefit within the amount of money you can afford to spend, you have the feeling that you made a good choice.
Value-for-money means the mix of quality, price, fit-for-purpose, timeliness and convenience all for the affordable price.
And you wish that every day you do the same.
Are you buying happiness?
As a matter of fact, people strive for happiness and quality of life. Many people buy new fashionable clothes, newest smartphones and newest versions of cars only because they want to feel good about themselves – feel that something nice is happening to them. But, this kind of impulse buying is dangerous.
It gives happiness only for a short period of time. After buying a new smartphone for the wrong reasons, people will be happy for a while, maybe as long as a day or two, or until the new version appears on shop shelves.
And then people will buy again to feel happy one more time. And they will do it again, again, and again.
That is why companies love so much when people buy on impulse, especially those firms which sell happiness, or other companies in the happiness-in-the-can industry.
Because after taking a sip of the sugary soft drink your mood will be greatly affected by the excessive amount of sugar reaching your brain. Indeed, you will feel happy when the glucose, a simple sugar found in plant and animal tissue, fuels your brain cells. Yes, happiness can be closed in a small aluminum can.
Unfortunately, the happiness from the can will only last for a short period of time, for a while, maybe as long as an hour or two since taking the last sip. And then happiness evaporates like bubbles from a soft drink because real happiness cannot be cheated on.
It evaporates as fast as the new thing you have purchased becomes mundane, and as long as the level of sugar in your bloodstream comes back to normal. On the other side, it is great to see producers of soft carbonated drinks to enter the healthy drink segment and revamp products for healthy-minded consumers, such as coconut water.
Is selling happiness OK?
The major problem with cheating on happiness is that once people start running out of money after excessive shopping, they may push themselves to start doing bad things to keep the happiness going.
People may over borrow money from the bank, max up their credit cards, start accepting bribes, or steal. Companies may purposefully lower the quality of products by using cheaper raw materials while selling for the same prices as before. Of course, you believe that you are not one of those bad people.
People do all of those bad things just to earn money, so they can buy themselves happiness in the form of a new shirt, golden necklace or a fashionable lipstick, only so they can feel good about themselves.
But their happiness will last only for a while, for a few seconds, most likely as long as it lasted after the first purchase.
