why do we need all this stuff?

to try to describe consumption (dimreepr style answer^TM)

3 minutes ago, Silvestru said:

to try to describe consumption (dimreepr style answer^TM)

consumption isn't need

10 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

consumption isn't need

I didn't say it is. You seem to have answered your own question. We can now debate the term need. Or we can talk about how good marketing strategies are and how they trained your mind and that of many others to have the feeling that the hole inside and the feeling of unhappiness or incompleteness can disappear if only you would get your hands on this new see-through toaster that lets you see exactly at what stage of development your toast is.

 

Edited December 28, 20187 yr by Silvestru

8 minutes ago, Silvestru said:

You seem to have answered your own question.

I was hoping for a different answer.

If you're talking about the effect, by definition it focuses on stuff that's not needed, so your OP is asked and answered.

If you're talking about the desire for new tools, I don't think we'll ever tire of it. We can, however, debate what makes a good tool, and what is merely marketing manipulation. Is that new smartphone an organizing time-saver, or is it a time-sucking diversion? Is a "fully-loaded" automobile a better value than one without all the bells and whistles? Or should we all take buses?

If you're talking about the stuff we actually consume/use up, we have our own affluence to blame. The better off people are, the more new stuff they want to try, the more they want to taste, the more they want to have. We tend to abuse this, which has the add-on effect of making more people affluent, so the cycle continues. 

Can you solve this problem without destroying many economies? If you stop making so much stuff, who benefits first? Who feels the impact first?

21 hours ago, Phi for All said:

Can you solve this problem without destroying many economies?

I don't know without trying.

21 hours ago, Phi for All said:

If you stop making so much stuff, who benefits first?

 our children?

21 hours ago, Phi for All said:

Who feels the impact first?

We all do, if we're lucky.

Edited December 29, 20187 yr by dimreepr

1 hour ago, dimreepr said:

I don't know without trying.

Trying what, exactly?

1 minute ago, Phi for All said:

Trying what?

To balance need and consumption.

1 minute ago, dimreepr said:

To balance need and consumption.

Magically?

27 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

Magically?

hope not

tbh I don't care, I doubt it will affect me

Edited December 29, 20187 yr by dimreepr

We need it because the adverts tell us we do and it drives the economy.

13 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

We need it because the adverts tell us we do and it drives the economy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Men_(season_1)

We're conditioned for consumption to drive economic growth.

Maybe the Diderot  effect is the positive feedback of consumptive status.

"The appetite grows with eating."..

 

Sell of iPhones, high-end smartphones, top-notch computers, is example of it. (Some) users want to have the best one on the market, even though they don't need them at all, or worser they can't afford them.. I could understand it from point-of-view programmer (who must check if the all his/her games and applications run flawlessly on newly released machine). But somebody who can't afford them?! They are pretending to be reacher than they really are..

 

Edited February 8, 20196 yr by Sensei

1 hour ago, Sensei said:

"The appetite grows with eating."..

Does it? or can I give up smoking?

2 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

Does it? or can I give up smoking? 

Your free will is in the hands of tobacco industry managers. They stole your free will. Take it back.

3 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Your free will is in the hands of tobacco industry managers.

That's a different topic...