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Thesis statement on effects of consumerism on the environment
Consumerism and environment essay
Consumerism and environment essay
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Why are we so greedy? Why does North America consume so much unneeded product? We are greedy. As soon as we have money in our bank account, we spend it without hesitation, on products we think will make us happy. If you compare what you have in your house to what somebody in a place like Africa has you will be appalled at how much stuff you have. As a society we consume much-unneeded product, because humanity as a whole is very self-minded, we take advantage of how privileged we are, and we will never feel satisfied with what we have. How often do you walk into a store after you receive a pay cheque and come out of the store with less money and more stuff? At least you put that good money to use to buy products that will make you happy, right? Wrong. Most people buy stuff because they think that it will make them happier or make them complete. The truth is that products or stuff might make you happy, but only for a short time. Soon that …show more content…
product will be "outdated" or will no longer be the trend. As soon as that happens you will feel like you need that brand-new fancy product to make you happy. Another reason that people like to buy the newest thing or trend is because they simply want to be recognized. They want people to know that they have that product and want to be liked. These ways are very self-minded and are simply just to make you feel good about yourself. Many people don’t even have the essentials to survive. North America is considered one of the most privileged nations in the world.
We have so much useless stuff that is completely just for pleasure. Pleasure is not a bad thing, but if we become obsessed with-it pleasure will be the only thing ever think about and strive for. How often when you buy something do you think that someone else in the world might need it more than you? Probably not very often. If we did though can you imagine how we could help people of the world who need these products more than us? The world would become a better and healthier place. If you looked at all the stuff that you have for pleasure and think how someone else who is in need could use that not for pleasure but for their very survival you would see how greedy we are. It is estimated that 644,000 people died in in Africa in 2012 just from disseizes. If those people had sustainable housing and the essentials to live that number would be much lower. Our society is very greedy, and people seem to think that every man is for
themselves. It is our human nature to think about only one person, and that person is our own selfish selves. As a society, we need to start being more collective and helping each other. The possibilities are endless if we could only work together. To many people want to do everything themselves which is not always the best choice. If we all worked together to strive for one goal we could do it much faster and more, thoroughly. Even in my life I like to do things by myself and not collectively. Many times, it is because I think that I can get more done while I am alone, but then when I do work collectively to solve a problem, I realize that you can be more productive with other people's help and opinions. The problem though is that many people don’t want to work together to solve certain problems. That is okay though, that is there choice. But the people who do want to work together need to stand up and make changes. We have so much useless stuff and we take advantage of it. We are never happy with what we have, and we don’t work collectively to solve the issue. We need to try to train ourselves to be happy with what we have not only want more stuff.
The society uses one’s happiness to seek their own. Starting with the ancient Adam Smith’s theory of a market economy where commodities are sold and bought in a market freely, where sellers and buyers exchange to achieve profit, and happiness is derived from profit. Thus “happiness is both produced and consumed” (Ahmed 3). Happiness is a matter of research for corporates of big companies. They try to figure out which product makes the buyers feel the happiness they need, so that they can produce more for their own profit. So, they cunningly make commercials with people having a good time. Which when watched by the buyers they get the false sense that their life would be so much better if they bought that small bottle of happiness. Once they buy their “Pandora’s box” they hope that underneath all the unnecessary objects there will be happiness, but they are dispirited at the end. Unknowingly the markets are making the society a more dull and sad place rather than distributing
Tony Hoagland involves the value system in the poem, money is put ahead of everything and yet happiness is just not where it should be. “I am asleep in America too.” We as humans believe that the more we have the happier we become which is not true at all. Material things fill the world and when they are achieved them happiness that we think will come never does. “Each day you watch rivers of bright merchandise run past you.” The choice is yours is it a want, or is it a need? Does it have a every day use or do you just like the way it looks? Marketing departments of companies know this and market along with creating protects that appeal to the
1. The main idea is not only that owning stuff is not the key to happiness, it’s also that consumers today own more than they need to thrive which directly impacts the environment. Hill illustrates the environmental impact by showing statistics of global warming today versus the past century, and how consumerism is leading to a hotter climate. Hill debunks claims of buying happiness by discussing a study where stress hormones spike to their highest when people are managing their personal belongings. Hill’s most prominent example that consumerism is not the answer is himself, as he discusses some of the most stressful times of his life being right after coming into a large sum of money and buying whatever he fancied. When Hill concludes his article, he states that “I have less—and enjoy more. My space is small. My life is big” (213).
The year is 1984. Consumerism is down and a war is exhausting nearly all produced goods. This is the nightmarish world in which consumption and production have been thrown out of balance and out of control. The equilibrium between production and consumption is one of the most important functions of not only our economy, but of the world’s. Without this stability there would be no way to keep the economy healthy and the world resources usable, but it is possible to keep worldwide production and consumption balanced through natural economic mechanisms, and reduced wasteful consumption. First we must understand what production and consumption is.
We have all types of clothing available to us; whereas many other countries may not have any way to even get clothing. Take gas, for example, it is such a valuable thing we have as a society, but do we ever think about where that gas came from and how it got there? Most people do not. Nevertheless, there are places in this world that people may not even have cars available, yet alone gas. If one were to ask someone who lives in the United States if we are a nation of excess, they would most likely say yes.
Humanity is an intriguing race indeed in the world. We can be careless when we purchase things. We tend to buy things with no awareness of the insane, expensive prices and end up purchasing things to fulfill our desires in fancy malls and stores. Anyways, there are many situations that of course happen within society today with unnecessary purchases.
In the article, "But Will It Make You Happy," Stepahnie Rosenblum shows us how to be happy with less money spent and more purchasing an experience. people spent their money to find happiness, but they do not realize that the experiences had more value of material objects. I agree with the author that experiences give people more satisfaction than spending money on materials as well small things bring more happiness.
...ver growing population I believe we either need to start reducing our consumption or start fixing the production.
Contrary to belief, genuine happiness is very rarely found at the bottom of a shopping basket or on the leather seats of a brand new car. Often we hear the cliché saying “Money can’t buy happiness” but this is in fact true. Whilst the elation and delight brought from finally owning a wanted item is extraordinary, you must remind yourself that your happiness should not become dependant upon your ownership of this item. Being happy is not something you can purchase from a shop or car dealership, it is the way you take on life. Unfortunately, happiness does not have its own aisle at shops and never will.
Exploitation of resources has been a major part of human sustenance. Consumption is necessary to sustain life on earth. Air, water, food, shelter and other resources are needed by people in order to survive. Nature provides enough resources for every person. However, the problem arises when people start consuming these resources in excess. As can be seen in Figure 1, the consumption of energy has gone up from around 100 Exajoules in the year 1960 to more than 500 Exajoules in the year 2000. This is an example of the fact that the demand for resources is rising at a fast pace. Excessive consumption takes place when humans start consuming the quantities of goods and services that are beyond the boundaries of needs. Excessive consumption is considered fair enough and natural by people due to the consumption culture surrounding them. At times, commodities and services are purchased to showcase power and wealth. Also, consumers get attracted by advertisements and feel that it is right to consume all that they want to. All these factors shape the present consumer culture. In order to understand consumption by humans, it needs to be viewed from different angles. The aim of this essay is to explain whether consumption is a problem or a solution to sustainable
Think about this: if food were scarce and overconsumption was a problem, we would not have obese people and well-nourished people. Although hunger does in fact remain a problem in some parts of this world, and some people are in fact obese as well, does not mean that consumption is at all a problem. The problem is, again, the hearts of the human people. We have more than enough food, resources, and everything else that we need for all of the people of this world need to survive and live good lives. In the article by Mark Sagoff, Do We Consume Too Much?, Sagoff writes, “The world has the wealth and the resources to provide everyone the opportunity to live a decent life” (Sagoff). There are enough resources to provide for the entire population of this world and the problem is not overpopulation nor consumption; the problem is people and still then, we are not as bad off as people
The Money – Happiness Connection article, “The first thing I did when I had a well-paying job is I stopped looking at those price tags. Now I never really feel stressed about money. Even if I lost my job tomorrow, I have my degree, and I can get another job. I get to live free from stress and worry and the constant calculating of tradeoffs that I had earlier in my career.” The stress about money is a serious problem and it is really ruin your mood easily and with out doubt it can ruin your happiness. You are sure that the more worry about money the more we run to sadness and stress so when you are free to buy thing that we like it make us happier, we are not worry it makes us more happier it is all just human nature. Child is happy because they carefree. Adult are the same thing care equal to happiness and the more carefree we are the more colorful our life
What exactly is happiness anyway? Happiness is when you feel complete and satisfied. It is when you’re content with where you are and what you have. It is the joy of doing something you love, or spending time with someone you love. It is an emotion and the best one yet. Money can easily make a person temporarily happy with the possessions it can buy, but true happiness is more than that. People can have everything material wise and still not be happy. Sure it can buy you many things, but the happiness from it is only temporary and limited. There’s only so much happiness you can buy with money. Money can easily buy you food, a clock, a house, education, make-up or medication; however it can’t buy you nutrition, time, a home, knowledge, beauty or health. It can buy you infatuation, but not love, acquaintances but not friendship and hierarchy but not respect. People spend their entire lives trying to make more and more money thinking that it means success. They neglect family and friends, don’t care about who they take down to reach their ...
When we are young children, we are introduced to the concept of "living happily ever after". This is a fairy-tale emotional state of absolute happiness, where nothing really happens, and nothing even seems to matter. It is a state of feeling good all the time. In fairy tales, this feeling is usually found in fulfilling marriages, royal castles, singing birds and laughing children. In real life, an even-keeled mood is more psychologically healthy than a mood in which you frequently achieve great heights of happiness. Furthermore, when you ask people what makes their lives worth living, they rarely mention their mood. They are more likely to talk about what they find meaningful, such as their work or relationships. Research suggests that if you focus too much on trying to feel good all the time, you’ll actually undermine your ability to ever feel good because no amount of feeling good will be satisfying to you. If feeling good all the time were the only requirement for happiness, then a person who uses cocaine every day would be extremely happy. In our endless struggle for more money, more love and more security, we have forgotten the most fundamental fact: happiness is not caused by possessions or social positions, and can in fact be experienced in any daily activity. We have made happiness a utopia: expensive, complicated, and unreachable.
Acquiring things like houses and cars only has a transient effect on happiness. People’s desires for material possessions crank up at the same, or greater rate, than their salaries. Again, this means that despite considerably more luxurious possessions, people end up no happier. There’s even evidence that materialism makes us less happy. People don’t shift to enjoyable activities when they are rich.... ...