Consumerism

I'm taking a class on consumerism this semester, which I've found interesting. Here are two articles that we read that I enjoyed. The first, I realized there was a very critical point of view about the richer people spending all the money on luxuries, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought, "I would do that too if I were rich. Of course people think that when they have the money they will use it to make their lives better, isn't that why people aim to earn money?" The second one was superbly written and brought up all kinds of questions about culture, which made me think of my recent review of Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy and writings of John Stuart Mill.

I definitely think that we need to take into consideration the needs of the whole world and be less selfish in our use of resources and luxury items, but it's hard to know how to help and I also think there's not one person who can really encourage everyone to do that. Again, we're waiting for the Second Coming. Until then, I'll work on it individually and hope that makes a difference.