We are a nation of over-consumers.

Buy Nothing Day: Over Consumption

In the whole one month I have been in Guelph, I have spent over $1500. If your thinking “on what?” you wouldn’t be the only one. I can’t seem to justify spending such an insane amount of money. The sad truth is: I like to spend money. I am a spend-like-crazy consumer in our spend-like-crazy economy.

We are always buying things, however useful or unnecessary they may be. Did you know that less than 20% of the world purchases over 80% of the produced goods made? We have a lot of stuff, and the only way we’ll slow down is when we run out of money.

Over-consumption is a huge problem in our economy. We just can’t resist spending money—if we have it, we want to spend it. Even when we don’t have money, we still want to spend it! There’s the problem in the US housing industry: people took out huge mortgages at low rates so they could buy bigger houses! More of what they don’t need—just to live the lavish life. But what happens when the rates start to go up? They can’t afford to pay those huge fees because they DON’T HAVE THE MONEY TO PAY. Now you have thousands of people who have had to foreclose or sell their homes because they couldn’t afford them. There’s the proof!

We just refuse to learn that we buy too much. We aren’t consumers, we’re over-consumers. The other day, I checked out the balance in my bank account: it sat at around $20. Looks like I learned my lesson the hard way, but once there’s money back in the bank, will I be spend-crazy once again?