Consumerism is Absurd

The wealth of the three most well-to-do individuals now exceeds the combined GDP of the 48 least developed countries. About 20 percent of the world's people live in the highest-income countries and account for 86 percent of total private consumption expenditures while the poorest 20 percent account for only 1.3 percent. That's quite absurd, isn't? What makes us so “rich” anyways? Oddly enough, for most of us, the answer is debt.

You are probably saying to yourself I'm a madman. Well, not quite. Think about it. How did you get your house? Did you buy it with cash? How many credit cards do you have? Do you actually have that “money” you spend? The truth is that the consumer debt in the US alone by the end of last year had already reached 9 trillion dollars! That's 12 zeros behind that 9! And that doesn't count the completely preposterous war on terror!

Consumerism is absurd. Over 50% of the world lives in poor misery, about 15% are not struggling to survive and the wealth of the 3 richest individuals now exceeds the combined GDP of the 48 least developed countries. To concentrate wealth to such an extent is absurd and completely counterproductive! Those richest people will never use their wealth completely, and when they do use some of it, they will buy ridiculously priced unnecessary crap for themselves! The UNDP calculates that an annual 4 percent levy on the world's 225 richest people would suffice to provide the following essentials for everyone in developing countries: adequate food, safe water and sanitation, basic education, basic health care and reproductive health care. Instead, the world keep starving and the rich keep wasting- and they produce quite a bit of waste for that matter. What's the point of all that? Why do 50% starve when there's more then enough food to feed everyone on the planet? Because CD players, TVs, LCD screens, Plasma TVs, Grande Venti Soy Verde Latte with extra whip cream and a shot of caramel, Blackberries and Laptops are more important then the well being of mankind? Absurd. Absolutely preposterous.

Having said all that, here are all the reasons why consumerism is ridiculous and will end up destroying our species, if we are not careful enough:
- too many people have too little and too few people have too much
- the people who don't have too much nor too little get into too much debt in order to get a bit of - what the people who have too much has (which puts the whole world's economy at risk)
- people often care more about their belongings then caring about other people some people even kill to consume
- consuming so much is destroying the environment
- consuming so much is creating too much waste - consuming so much has unhealthy psychological implications