The Many Benefits of Anti-Consumerism

The Many Benefits of Anti-Consumerism
-------------------------------------
Sat Dec 2 22:06:30 EST 2023

It's been a year of non-technical interests,
as I detailed a bit on my weblog [1]. Among
them were Digital Minimalism, Financial
Independence (especially through Frugality),
Investing, and more recently Sustainability
and Zero-Waste.

Thinking about minimizing my environmental
impact / waste led me to a maybe-not-so-shocking
revelation:

The simplest path for all of
the above is to just not buy
things.

You create less waste if you buy less.
It's easier to FI if you buy less.
You have more to invest if you buy less.

All of the interests are symbiotic in this
way. Even digital minimalism fits in nicely,
with less need for state-of-the-art technology,
less ewaste, and of course less exposure to
advertisements which drive the desire for things.

I may be misusing the term, but I think what
is essential to achieving buying less is
anti-consumerism: rejecting the culture of
endless consumption. Breaking the desire->
purchase->discard hamster wheel and instead
reusing, repairing, and recycling.

With our FI hat on:

Any dollar spent is a dollar
not gaining interest ("working
for you").

But maybe that argument doesn't appeal to
the already wealthy. A more urgent need
is seen with the sustainability hat on:

Any material thing must
have been created with resources
taken from this earth (potentially
through harmful methods).

Repairing, repurposing, and most importantly
sharing our possessions can keep waste out
of landfills and strengthen our communities.

I'm sharing all this not to preach, judge,
or otherwise posture as a better earth citizen
than anyone else. I'm just as guilty of buying
my own lawnmower for ~10 mows a year instead
of arranging a joint custody with neighbors
(albeit before having given this much thought).

I bring this all up because I'm excited. My
seemingly complex and varied lifestyle goals
all have a simple, effective, solution to get
me 90% of the way there: just buy less.

[1]: https://alexkarle.com/blog/life-updates-2023.html