I Rant About Consumerism Again

Let's talk about consumerism, again.

How many times have you seen this? A person openly espousing anti-capitalist sentiments, whilst drinking Starbucks or typing on a new MacBook Pro? It's an event commonly pointed to by various right-wing pundits as an icon of the left's hypocrisy -- while they also denounce Chinese manufacturing while consuming goods made in China. Various times, people will often retort, saying that this is simply the system we live under, so we must live by its rules, while still protesting it.

But this is simply untrue. It is, frankly, an excuse. Let me put it very bluntly. Corporations do not care what you say. A boycott or protest is completely ineffective if their sales figures are not changed whatsoever. Wal-Mart does not care how much you whine about them destroying the small-town main street while you continue shopping for their goods. And why should they? After all, they didn't destroy the small mom-and-pop shops, we did. We chose Wal-Mart, we have made our beds and now must lie in them.

Frankly, we are beyond the point of 'mom-and-pop shops'. Look around at them. What do they sell? Vinyl records? Antiques? Essential oils and artisan crafted soaps and candles? Now go to your local Wal-Mart or Target or Kroger, check the types of vinyl records or antiques they sell. A few, if any.

The only reason these local shops still exist is because Wall Street (And these companies are, at the end of the day, puppets of Wall Street -- just look at the percent owned by institutions) has not found a way to effectively tap this market. Estate sale settlement and antique dealing is not easily scalable, due to the lack of uniformity amongst goods. But if it was? You would absolutely see people going to the big-box retailers instead of the small businesses. Because big business does it cheaper. Sure, there are ethical implications and factors with buying from big retailers. But honestly, most people simply do not care. They just go whereever is cheapest.

So where am I going with all this? My point is that people can cry against capitalism and globalism all they want, but they are the ones who chose it. They are the ones who helped these companies crush small business. They are the ones who cast aside the local, family grocers. Now the only small businesses left are trinket shops, junk stores, and food shacks. Things that cannot be easily replicated across the nation.

The people that claim to be against capitalism and globalism, while actively consuming the products that capitalism and globalism have produced for them, they are biting the hand that feeds them. They do not practice what they preach. Instead of smashing capitalism by writing your blog posts on your macbook, sipping your starbucks, buy a refurbished laptop and write at the local cafe. The coffee may be more expensive, a refurbished laptop isn't as aesthetically and spiritually appealing. But at least you'd be ideologically consistent.

Anti-globalists rush to go to the local Home Depot -- owned by the same investment bankers that sold out the American manufacturing base -- in order to get more goods made in China. Instead, they should shop carefully. Buy things that are certifiably made in America, not just assembled in America. If you can't find any, buy some secondhand or restored, buy old vintage sets, or just make do without them, tough guy. If you want globalism to stop, do something about it instead of just whining on Facebook.

To stop globalism, capitalism, whatever, you must actually make them bleed. If your actions do not affect their quarterly earnings, they will not listen. That's the plain truth of it. Look at Bud Light and Target. They were boycotted, and they backpedaled. Why? Because it actually affected their earnings.

If you complain about capitalism or globalism, and continue to buy big-box or made in China goods, you are plainly a liar. You cannot claim to be against something while actively supporting it. It's like if a liberal voted for Trump out of hate. It makes zero sense, and it is completely inconsistent.

There is the cost. Is it more expensive to buy local, to buy American, whatever? Yes. But so what? What is more important, your beliefs or your wallet? Would you compromise your values to save a few dollars? Or here's a different idea, stop buying so much. Stop consuming so rampantly. Secondhand goods aren't inferior because they've been owned previously, tainted somehow, that's corporate propaganda that's been funneled into your mind since birth.

Do you know how expensive goods were before global capitalism? I can buy a T50 staple gun for twenty dollars. In 1970, it costed around -- inflation adjusted -- one hundred and twenty. A fifteen-inch color television in 1954 costed an adjusted nine thousand dollars. Nowadays, a thirty-two-inch television costs a hundred. But you know how people afforded these expensive goods? For one, manufacturing was still large in America, so the wages were generally higher as well, allowing consumers to support these purchases. But more importantly, people consumed less. A family generally had one television. Your father's tools were his priceless collection, bought over his life. People didn't fill their houses with junk and trash. People couldn't afford as much as they can nowadays, so they simply consumed less. But with global capitalism, we can buy things much cheaper. And boy, do we buy things.

America's GDP was twenty-seven trillion dollars in 2023. That's a good indicator right? That's how many goods and services were produced in a year. But think about the inverse. It is also a statement of how much money is required to maintain the current level of consumption in the country. Americans consume a lot. In 2023, Amazon shipped six billion packages, Temu shipped four hundred million. Two hundred and seventy million Instacart orders, a quarter billion GrubHub orders, two billion DoorDash orders. Americans consume a lot of things just shipped to their door alone.

So perhaps, we don't need to buy the new phone, we don't need a new laptop, we don't need a fancy new coffee maker or teapot or cat plush or fake plant. Maybe we just need to stop buying so much, especially when it is at the expense of the, often times, genuine slaves used to produce these goods. Perhaps we need to put our money where our mouth is by putting away our wallets. Take a genuine look at the things we're wanting, buying, convincing ourselves we need. Maybe we need to stop supporting the things we despise.

What should we do? Shop smart, shop local. Genuinely inspect if a product has been made ethically, made in America, whichever. Shop locally, usually ethnic grocers are family run. Actually go out to the restaurant, and a real one, not a chain. Buy your clothes and furniture secondhand or locally crafted. Buy your electronics secondhand -- I doubt there's any small-business computer manufacturers out there. The grand point here is to just be ideologically consistent, do as you say. Take responsibility as one of the people who got us into this situation, and do your part to at least start to get us out. Don't just whine about your conditions, and actually do something to affect them.