Stuff Is Not Salvation Analysis

In the article ‘Why Stuff in not Salvation’, Anna Quindlen is suggesting that the people are out of control with consumption of products. She writes, “addiction to consumption, so out of control that it qualifies as a sickness” which is validated by the death of the Walmart employee, the debt the country is in, as well as the ungrateful spirit in humans.

Jamie Payne Amber rife Composition 1 In "stuff is not salvation" Anna Quindlen argues that Americans desire for junk over things they really need. Quindlen wants her readers to understand that "stuff does not bring salvation" (322). Quindlen starts of her writing by telling us how a worker died because he was rushed by tons of people that were trying to get all of the discounted goodies during a Black Friday sale then she talks about how Americans will be a trillion dollars in debt by 2010.

He said people are happier if they live in wealthy than poor nations. However, when people have enough money to pay for their basic need of food, shelter, etc., money does relatively little to improve happiness. He said people today are twice as rich as people in the late 1960s, but they were less happy than people in the 1960s. In the article “Spending Become You” the author Juliet Schor argues that Americans are looking for happiness, so that lead them to continuously buy so much and overspend without even realizing that they are spending more than they make. David G Myers, in the article “ The Funds, and Faith of Happy people” he argues that it is impossible what these people are doing, because money can’t buy happiness. This shows that, the American habit of overspending is unnecessary. Myers’ article enables us to understand why Schor said, all that Americans do is spend, spend and spend as if they can’t have fun without spending

In reading Anna Quindlen’s¬¬ 2008 op-ed, “Stuff Is Not Salvation”, she briefs the reader on the horrors of American consumerism. Her piece starts with a morbid detail of a Wal-Mart employee that was trampled to death during a Black Friday Sale. She goes on to summarize how the shoppers continued to grab items even after the management announced that the store was closed. Quindlen also sprinkles her work with several statistics. Though there are many valid points that these statistics bring, she doesn’t provide a reference nor citation to these points. Quindlen also has a small scope on those whom live frugal and fruitfully. Quindlen focuses only a handful of personal experiences, mentioning friends who falter, and small rural farmers in Pennsylvania.

Mindless zombies is what our consumer culture has created. In the article, “Stuff is Not Salvation,” by Anna Quindlen, the author uses all three appeals to shed light on how we as consumers have been throwing away our money on useless “stuff.” This not-so-new consumer mindset has created its own industry that has directly affected the U.S. stock market and made a lot of Wall Street execs rich. Americans need to stop going crazy over holiday bargains and realize what effect this mindless spending is having on consumer culture and on people in general.

In her essay “Stuff is Not Salvation” Anna Quindlen speaks on the topic of American’s ridiculous addiction to consuming products. Quindlen believes that this addiction is an even bigger issue than loosing homes, and jobs. She explains how American’s tend to frequently replace undamaged items, leaving old items to gather dust. With the use of credit, one can now purchase items without physical money, digging themselves into debt. Important things such as bills and medicine are often put behind the wants of new items. Her conclusion is that salvation cannot can, and will not come from purchased items. With this use of facts and stories, Quindlen makes a valid argument towards her statement of “stuff is not salvation”.

Brennan Manning’s says that Americans measure success by one’s pile of possessions. Manning talks about a few articles that he read and he found out that the majority of Americans are fat, exhausted, frustrated, lustful, and dissatisfied with their level of achievement because we care about being overweight, and how to maintain a nice body, and caring a lot about all of these useless things. He states that a lot of Americans’ conversations revolve around consumption, including what we buy/bought, where/what to eat, the price of things, what’s on sale, etc. Americans show a lot of interest in this materialistic items when they won’t even matter when we die. The things that matter in our life should be non-materialistic items and that we should

Having a mother-in-law who immigrated to the United States from the Philippines I have experienced first hand the difference in our material cultures. Growing up in the Philippines during World War II, her family was often lacking in basic human needs; food was not readily available, clothing was in short supply and one did not dispose of anything that might have another use. She re-purposed everything and threw out nothing, her pantry could feed a family of four for an entire year, and she was proud to be frugal. Contrast her behavior with the throw-away mentality of today and the differences are vast. With the availability of items, lesser quality of products coupled with marketing that encourages one to buy and buy more often, we are a society constantly upgrading.

Affluenza is the theory that as people are able to buy more goods, their level of enjoyment from those purchases goes down (Affluenza). Since the 1950s, a trend of buying more and feeling less fulfilled as become prevalent among Americans. This has lead to a country where hyper commercialism, materialism, and the “buy now, pay later” motto have become the norm. However, despite a clear epidemic of affluenza rearing it’s head in America, recent years have shown a slow progression towards finding a cure.

I recently watched a documentary titled “Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things ”. I learned a great deal about what is appealing about the mentality and lifestyle of the minimalist and how our society has become enamored - or even obsessed with an endless quest for possessions, seemingly all to the detriment of the family unit. How do material possessions now translate into happiness, self-worth, and success? Why did bigger become better, and how did it replace the less is more mindset? Moreover, how did the American dream become defined by the size of our homes, the number of vehicles we possess, or the latest and greatest in technological advances? The unquenchable thirst for these “inanimate objects of desire” has unfortunately become a replacement for the personal interaction and relationships with other people, especially family.

I freaked out watching TLC show “ Hoarding, Buried Alive”. This show evoked me how modern people have accumulated stuff excessively. In the TV show, none of them are happy living with massive material possessions. It even destroys the relationship with their family members. Hoarders felt uncomfortable, depression and anxiety. This brings me into a question about the negative effect of consumerism in modern days. Why does living more or less effect to our happiness?

This was mentioned quite a bit in the article “Living Deeply” by Janet Luhrs. She tells us not to live on autopilot, not to buy things that don’t have meaning and to live deliberately. Her example of the fact that we shouldn’t be so materialistic that stuck with me the most was, “we seem to be awfully busy here in the US. But at the end of our lives have we really achieved more than the simple farmer, and will we remember that we bought 12 pairs of pants instead of 12?” That points out the flaws of the consumerist world that we live in. Is it really better to slave away for minimum wage, just so every Friday we can buy another item that we probably won’t think about three weeks down the road? This makes me want to slow down my life and stop trying to race the clock. I want to have my own garden and my own self sustainable life so I can essentially try to have as little of a footprint on the Earth as

Schor, a professor at Boston College, argues that we are living in “the cycle of work and spent” which motivates the people to “spend longer hours of work” in order to buy materialistic items based on their appearance to the world. She states the “competitive consumption has shifted out to the vast majority of the population” and “the media has a very pronounced bias towards showing upscaled or affluent consumption” (Schor). Schor highlights the kinds of “socially visible items become increasingly important as a part of a competitive consumer system.” And because of that, “the growth of the aspiration gap has led American

The new consumerism essentially with its increasing aspirational gap, has begun to endanger the quality of American life. Consequently, there is pressure to keep up with commodity goods and not worthwhile experiences. Schor claims that Americans did not become greedy out of nowhere, but instead, “The aspirational gap has been created by structural changes—such as the decline of community and social connection and the intensification of inequality…” (Schor, P.255, L2, L#2).

Although some people may think that material objects are essential in life, that’s not always true. When I was 12, I used to think that all I wanted was an iPhone because with it I would be able to play games, but also call and text people in case of an emergency . I repeatedly asked my parents for a new phone, but was always be turned down. It wasn’t until my birthday I got one, but not longer after I realized that it wasn’t all that different from the phone I had before. Sometimes people think that they want something because they will gain something or benefit from it, but they really just want it because other people around them have it. Both greed and selfishness make people want material items, while generosity can lead to just the opposite.