(Part 2) Top products from r/Anticonsumption

Capitalism requires exploitation.
Successful capitalism requires consumers.
Consumerism is fetishistic.
Fetishism does not necessarily follow from consumers, and so ultimately no. Capitalism does not require fetishistic consumers.
It is, in demonstrable examples, the inevitable result. In history, capitalism always leads to fetishistic consumers.

Capitalism, however, does require that some people receive less than the value of their labor. Also, that some people who have capital receive more than the worth of their labor. This is the exchange for the risk they take with their capital.

Again, it is extremism that leads to unsustainable levels of exploitation. Though extremism is not necessary. It is, in demonstrable examples, the inevitable result.

Capitalism is in practice then, the replacement of serfs tied to the land with wage slaves. They are free to quit any given job, but not to quit the social strata. Postindustrial Peasants was a really interesting monograph that digs into this issue with lots of excellent research.

I’m not sure the economy dying is really what many people want. Many of us agree that the current mass consumption based economy is not healthy or sustainable. If you are really interested I can suggest a couple books that I found interesting.

The is good economics book on this topic.
Small is Beatiful

Some of look to more simple living you find in books like The Plain Reader: Essays on Making a Simple Life or even Walden

It massively depends on the specific book you're reading. You don't read the classics and return them to the library. With something like Crime and Punishment, or Faust, or Moby Dick, or anything on this list, you need to be able to mark up the book with notes during a first read through, so that you're better able to absorb and understand and critique the book during the second, longer reading. (A great book on reading: https://www.amazon.com/Well-Trained-Mind-Classical-Education-Fourth/dp/0393253627/ref=dp_ob_title_bk )

If you're reading for pleasure, or if the subject matter isn't as complex as Moby Dick, the library is fine. And, in that case, you're completely correct. I love Le Carre, but I can't imagine buying one of his books. The same goes for cook books--I take them out from the library, copy the recipes I like, and bring them back.

I think that you should only buy a book if you're definitely going to read it and mark it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World

Thanks. Yeah I think they both definitely complement each other, but the "what can I bring forth" mindset really resonates with me moreso.

It is pretty aligned with the Buddhist concept of "genuine happiness," that Alan Wallace really discusses in his work and teachings:

http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Happiness-Meditation-Path-Fulfillment/dp/047146984X

Jeff Rubin - "Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller" - I read this book a few years ago, and it is an excellent look into how our world will change once the easy-to-get-at oil is gone. I highly recommend reading it.

Brondell Bidet - Thinline Dual Nozzle SimpleSpa SS-250 | Fresh Water Spray |Non-Electric | Bidet Toilet Attachment in White | SafeCore Internal Valve | Nozzle Guard | Easy to Install https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KX9J9DQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_fH5jDbV2P55GN


I have used this one since jan. It has a duel spray which i recomend if a women is using.

“Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things” is a book I am currently enjoying that covers these topics. The anti-corporation sentiment is unrealistic, though, as large companies are what develop and set in place sustainable energy via solar, wind, etc. and are able to invest in recycling programs to reuse plastics, etc. in the first place—but that’s my only qualm about the book so far. Here’s an Amazon link.
https://www.amazon.com/Cradle-Remaking-Way-Make-Things/dp/0865475873/ref=nodl_

The same view is expressed in Charles Wheelan's book Naked Economics.

Also, Paul Krugman's In Praise of Cheap Labour (mit.edu) is worth reading.

Sure, if we all stopped consuming 50% of what's being produced, this would make half the production obsolete. The twist in thinking is that this is a good thing and not a bad one as the growth imperative would suggest.

I see the way out through going back to more self-sufficiency. The alternative to a consumer society is a society of mostly self-sufficient people. This is the basis of freedom from economic pressures as it decouples your well-being from the ups and downs of the market economy. Then, how would you get such economically free people back into wage-slavery? In fact, this was the situation prior to the industrial revolution. There's a nice book on the subject of how initially economically independent farmers were systematically robbed of their means of self-sufficiency to drive them into the factories, basically the ironically very forced birth of the "free" market capitalism. There was also a recent article posted about the book.

So basically it is not that we simply stop consuming and then how do we get our food? Instead we go back to more self-sufficiency and no longer require neither wages nor the products of wage-labor. This way, each person can individually step out of the vicious circle that is our current economic system.

For more detail on how to do this - practically, you may want to read "Possum Living", "Early retirement extreme" or "How to live without a salary".

More mainstream are books like "Your money or your life" or "Work less, play more."

Critical Pedagogies of Consumption: Living and Learning in the Shadow of the "Shopocalypse" (Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education)

Amazon Link


A good collection of papers on different topics concerning hyper-consumption. On the light side of academic writing and pretty broad in focus, so no previous experience in the field is necessary

A book plug (is that frowned upon in this subreddit?), but the intro to Matthew Crawford's The World Beyond Your Head explores this question and answers it in the affirmative. Here's an article in the NYT that is basically an adaption of the same introduction to the book. Currently reading it, about half way through. I like it, so far.

When you get that urge to consume, ask yourself a question along the lines of: "What void am I trying to fill? What personal problem am I trying to fix? How else can I fill that void or fix that problem?"

You have to get down to the source of why you want to consume. Where is that feeling coming from?

I highly recommend "The Globalization of Addiction" ( http://www.amazon.com/The-Globalization-Addiction-Poverty-Spirit/dp/0199588716).

It covers how free market society causes people to feel socially and culturally disconnected, and how people substitute real human experiences with consumption (food, drugs, shopping).

It's almost cliche for people to say that they have a stressful day at work, so they come home and unwind with comfort food, alcohol, mindless TV and a trip to the mall on weekends. Instead of looking inward to the source of their problems, they look outward for temporary material fixes.

Next time you feel the urge to buy something, ask yourself what feelings you are trying fill. It's could be that you're using consumption as a substitute for something deeper. Dig one layer deeper and ask yourself some honest questions.

I highly recommend his book http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Taboo-Against-Knowing/dp/0679723005

No Impact Man

Found it!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Happy-More-Less-Everything-Absolutely/dp/0552172359

[Ecotopia] (http://www.amazon.com/Ecotopia-Ernest-Callenbach/dp/0553348477) by Ernest Callenbach

Radical Simplicity: Small Footprints on a Finite Earth
http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Simplicity-Small-Footprints-Finite/dp/0865714738

The shavers you're thinking of use internal LiON/NiCAD batteries.

The Gillette Fusion Power instructions recomend you:
> replace the Duracell AAA battery every 3-6 months

But maybe the courts are wrong, look at all these positive reviews.

Fun fact: A lot of the $300 - $500K houses out west of Denver/Arvada are built near the former Rocky Flats facility, which processed Plutonium pits and stored radioactive waste outside in containment ponds and barrels on the premises. Leaky Leaky.

The housing builder corporations were able to get an exemption of the mention of this historic facility nearby (It's now a Wildlife Refuge) from their housing disclosures. So many of the people moving into those new ready to buy template built "starter homes" don't even know what used to be there. (And what is still there - Plutonium has a half life of 24,100 years) It's a deceitful and dangerous practice to forgo this potentially radioactive disclosure.

I have to wonder - What is potential cancer worth to someone now, or over their lifetime? Is it worth a new house, at a fair market price, with spectacular mountain views, easy highway access, all the modern amenities, and nearby outdoor recreation and family picnics at the wildlife refuge? They can't think about the opportunity cost if they don't know all the pros and cons.

I read this book, Full Body Burden about Rocky Flats and that is where I source the above claims.

Chronic illnesses are increasingly problems in "small simple villages" as is diabetes, excessive fats, etc. Coca-Cola is everywhere in the world. Cancer is a multifactorial illness and caused by more than just toxic/synthetic stuffs (AND developing countries have high rates of exposure to toxic chemicals anyways).

Here is a really good book about the absolute horrors of experiencing cancer in a developing country: http://www.amazon.com/Improvising-Medicine-Oncology-Emerging-Epidemic/dp/0822353423. There are no advanced treatments. There are almost no oncologists and almost no medicine. Treatment and pain meds are rationed out to the youngest patients. Cancer is not diagnosed as often in low-income countries (mostly due to much lower average life spans and to a lack of screening for the disease), but it exists and it is awful for the people who experience it.

Secondly, please look at the etiologies of maternal mortality. This is a serious issue and cannot be solved in basic clinics at low cost. Women die in childbirth because they get married and impregnated at age 13, because they live in communities that don't allow women to seek medical treatment, because they get no prenatal care, because their genitalia has been mutilated, because they start hemorrhaging and live 5 hours from a hospital, because they need a c-section and live in a country with zero operating theatres, etc, etc.

Further, there are very few people in developing countries who can live by just gathering food for a few hours a day. Agriculture is a labor-intensive process. Odds are the typical person in this situation wouldn't be slaving 50 hrs/week -- they'd be slaving away for more.

Look, I love this story, and I love the overall message, but the point is not that people in developing countries have an idyllic life free from the horrors of modern development. That philosophy does a disservice to the very real struggles that billions of people experience.