Living With Less By Graham Hill

Does having twice as much or bigger and better devices make us any happier? Many people see buying things such as dishwashers and cars as a necessary purchase. Although many may argue that these purchase help the quality of life, but in reality these type of purchases are unnecessary. We start to become shopaholics. Buying anything and everything to fill that hole inside us. Unfortunately that satisfaction goes away quickly. Buying our way to happiness doesn’t work. According to Tori DeAngelis and Juliet Schor, this is not abnormal. In Schor’s essay she stated, “The percentage of the population who reported being “very happy” peaked in 1957… By the last years the polls were taken (1970 and 1978), the national level of “very happy” had not recovered, in spite of the rapid growth in consumption during the 1960’s and 1970’s” (qtd. In Schor 612). This goes to show what consumerism does to us. It takes away our happiness. Many factors of consumption can cause this, but the main factor is competition. These materialistic goods have made us all competitive as if we were animals trying to survive. But what we’re competing for isn’t natural. Trying to meet others standards of life isn’t healthy. Consumerism isn’t the solution although some may say it

The act of crossing a metaphorical threshold is one that is oftentimes difficult and daunting. Although it may require courage, the reward of gaining knowledge is worth the process of crossing whatever threshold life chooses to place in front of you. In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel the protagonist, Sarah Grimké, knows all about crossing thresholds. She lives by her own personal slogan to “err… on the side of audacity.” I have come to learn so much about myself and the world around me by doing just that.

The themes of power and control in Stokey Carmichael's "What We Want" and Huey Newton's "The Founding of the Black Panther Party" and "Patrolling" are expressed in different methods to make a point. However, they both share similar goal to end racism by educating their communities of their legal rights and ways to create unity in their communities.

To begin, I will be discussing money, one of the many themes in “The Living is Easy” by Dorothy West. This book is about a woman named Cleo, who grew up in an upper-class African American family. Cleo was always into the business world ever since she was a little girl. She moved to Boston and married Bart Judson also known as “The black banana king.” They have one daughter named Judy. Bart owned business that he transported bananas. He was a very productive and wealthy man, but when things took a turn for the worst, he had lost all his money leaving Cleo with the remains of it. Their marriage was solely based on money, while Cleo sisters, Charity, Lily, and Serena had it differently. They loved their husbands, so much that money was not a necessary object, and no money was involved. The sisters had visited Cleo without their spouses for most of the book making their mindsets change as well as their attitudes towards their husbands. This mindset has shown the many problems with Bart Judson’s money and revealed how careless the characters can be.

In Bookmarks, Possessed by Our Possessions, Diane Cole states, “But never has hoarding been so visible as it is today in westernized societies. Perhaps the abundance of inexpensive and easily accessible objects makes it the disorder of the decade” (Cole 3). This quotes is very relevant to my views on how and why America seemed to be consumed by consumption. This isn’t just a coincidence but, an action that has turned into an emotion. Buying items used to be dependent on necessity but now it is based on the feeling. To buy items people enjoy themselves and it turns into a leisurely activity. Because of the emotion shopping creates, individuals who suffer from depression use this as an outlet and tend to buy at

As a nation we all participate in daily consumption of food, clothing, shelter and some sort of transportation. to survive. We are destroying our environment with waist. On average Americans disposed over 200,000 tons of edible food daily. Pollute our air and water, destroy our forest, just so we can drive the newest car or have the latest crafted oak furniture We use top soil to build malls, so people can consume even more. In "The shadows of Consumption, Peter Dauvergne explain the coast of consumption by globalized corporations, trade, and finance." (Dauvergne, Peter. The Shadows of Consumption: Consequences for the Global Environment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. ).

The book Ordinary People by Judith Guests is about a seventeen year old boy named Conrad Jarrett. Conrad is diagnosed with depression and tries to commit suicide. His depression developed after his brother Buck dies from drowning. In the book we find out even though Conrad 's depression developed after Buck 's death, his mother 's arrogance and his father 's assertive behavior of teaching him how to grow up are all factors of his depression. Depression is a type of mental disorder and all mental disorders need to be given proper treatment. Unfortunately the way the world works, is that people can be given proper treatment and care if and only they have money to pay for it. Treatments of mental disorders all depend upon which class the mentally ill fall into.

Verdant portrays them as the materialistic family, and always wanting more. He starts explaining how much money the Binges spends, which out limits their credit debt. With the money they spend, they purchase an excessive amount of electronic devices, disrupting their “relationships with friends and neighbors to suffer in this environment, because after all, for them, consumption is a form of aggressive competition” (Verdant, 156). In contrast of the Ables, the Binges have their wishes fulfilled with all the luxury materials they purchase, but are fully in debt and stressing. The author states their impulsive purchases affects the economy and the environment because of the shopping bags they always throw out, polluting the

In the world buying the things you want compared to buying the things you need is a consist problem for many people in America. Depending on a person’s financial situation, they might never be able to buy the things they want and just focus on the things they need. Most middle class Americans focus on paying for essential things such as: food, water, housing, and transport. My views towards consumerism is that people should focus on quality overbecause there are some moments in life that lower quality things will have negative effects.

Published in 1997, Marie Howe’s anthology of poems, What the Living Do was written as an elegy to her brother, John, who passed away due to AIDS. Howe’s anthology is written without metaphor to document the loss she felt after her brother’s death. Although What the Living Do is written as an anthology, this collection allows for individual poems to stand alone but also to work together to tell an overarching story. Using the poetic devices of alliteration, enjambment, repetition and couplets, Howe furthers her themes of gender and loss throughout her poems in her anthology.

As a country, Americans love to shop. Whether in malls, grocery stores, on the Internet, or elsewhere, the culture of buying is deeply ingrained in American culture. Fueled largely by advertising and the current credit system, America’s consumer culture is depleting our planet’s finite natural resources and polluting our environment. Consumerism has instilled in Americans an artificial, ongoing, and insatiable desire for mass-produced and marketed products, and the money with which to buy them, with little regard to their actual usefulness or necessity. This constant desire to acquire more possessions is poisoning the planet, as it can never be sated and thus results in the never-ending exploitation of the Earth’s natural resources, and

Materialism, although commonly seen as a harmful characteristic, has the potential to be a beneficial one. The desire for a vast number of possessions has often been tied to the wealthy; however, both wealthy and poor alike have materialistic tendencies and thus, everyone has the potential to live unsustainably. Being materialistic is not what classifies a person as sustainable or unsustainable, it is what that person pursues with their tendencies that does so. If someone wanted to purchase a new vehicle, it would be unsustainable for them to purchase a Bentley or a G-Wagen while there are alternative, energy saving models like a Tesla or Prius. The trend that 's beginning to take hold in the United States is that the more material things that are owned, the more successful one will be perceived as. This influx in material objects is not only the wrong way to measure success, but it is also the opposite of living sustainably. Although it is the rich who are often targeted for living unsustainably, the poor also have an equal part to blame in the matter. Today, living extravagant and expensive lives is a goal sought by many, and the only way to change that goal is to redefine the definition of success into something more meaningful. Living sustainably does not mean having to remove all materialism from life, it simply means making small changes in day to day life that encourage less wasteful tendencies.

Peter Singer states that “our ordinary patterns of spending money on ourselves are immoral.”; but my response to this is that, as human beings we don’t know any better. Consumerism is the trap that holds us dear and truthfully never lets go. If we see something we enjoy, if it adds a level of comfortability, or gives us the slightly rush of adrenaline; we must acquire it. We thrive off materialism items, although most aren’t necessary needed to live a wholesome life. I believe all you ultimately need is food, water, shelter, and clothing. I’m not including education, healthcare, or anything that follows along these lines. I’m not saying that spending money on materialism items such as makeup is a terrible thing, but it shouldn’t be the first

In terms of consumption, no being can exist without interacting with the environment. There is an ecological dialogue that is in constant motion between us as human beings and the environment. I have found that this change in lifestyle allowed me to understand other environmental threats in my community and

Whoever said money can’t buy happiness? Today, the argument can be made that happiness and consumerism are directly linked. It is fair to say that happiness is a relative term for different people. However, the obtaining of new and shiny things has become such a part of everyday life, that it provides happiness when people are purchasing something new, and causes sadness when no buying is taking place. For many, it seems to be a protective coating against the harsh realities of everyday stresses from a job, or family life.