Posted on 01/11/2019 7:07:48 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Somewhere, two people have twice these stats, to make up for my husband and myself.
Whenever I help somebody move, I go home close my eyes, grab something, and throw it out.
I have no idea how this figure could even be remotely calculated. Take for instance an automobile. If one has to commute to work, it is a need. If there is public transportation available is it still technically a need or does it become a want? If it is a need to get to work and a $15K Ford Fiesta would be adequate for the purpose but one opts for a $150K Porsche instead, is the $135K overage calculated as a "want", and the $15K considered the "need"?
IMHO, most of these stats are meaningless and only serve the purposes of guilting successful people and promoting class envy.
Yeah, “non-essential goods,” why should my consumption be limited solely to non-essential goods? I render services that someone in society has deemed valuable to earn money to allow to acquire things that I want.
And as you note, how is something deemed essential or not?
From birth through college, there is a gross materialism around all the stuff we wrap our kids with, especially.
I get why folks might use a garage bay for storage. Surprised it is only 1 in 10 for the rented storage.
Millennials were supposed to be less materialistic, but when those I know get married, have babies, etc., they are more into the trappings than our previous generations, for sure.
Ha ha!
It’s an interesting article. I posted it to FB “friends”, maybe get an intelligent conversation going. I just “decluttered” my house. Now, everything has a purpose (not all necessities) and a place. It’s made what I have so much more useful and interesting.
If government can take it away from you for unpaid taxes, do you really OWN it?
Regarding those shopping malls: here in the lower Michigan/Toledo area the recession took its toll. Of the eight in the area only one is doing well; two are open with only two of three stores; and the rest of the malls were bulldozed.
It was not until this last year that business picked up.
George Carlin - A Place For My Stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLoge6QzcGY
If a firearm is used for recreational shooting for years, but in one night it is used to defend the family during a home invasion, when did it stop being a, "want," and start being a, "need"?
If a hobby, independent of one's livelihood, promotes one's psychological well-being, is money spent on that hobby a need or want?
Utterly absurd and meaningless statistic. As I noted, it is not a useless statistic; it's very useful to those wishing to inflame class animosity.
Stuff is good. Stuff is great. I want more stuff!
If a function cannot be performed without it, it is essential. But is the function essential?
"...how much stuff we actually own..."
Like when a parent or aunt/uncle pass and you are the one to sort through the "stuff" they leave behind.
I don't want my daughter to have to go through that.
$1.2 trillion on non-essential goods—that’s nothing. Look at what we spend on non-essential government!
Donate it, the donation center sells it and the money goes to a worthy cause.
I need to get cracking on a truckload.
While there are many references in the article that I dont practice. I still have clutter.
RE: $1.2 trillion on non-essential goods
But we can’t have $5 Billion for a Border Wall.
O.K. just get western consumption down to pre-WWII levels and watch the economies of many poor countries collapse, as export to western countries is 100% of all they have.
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