Consumerism - Household debt and embracing minimalism

General Discussion
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Although credit card debts and mortgage debts perhaps even a leased car is a normalcy in the US, many people also business folks have too many cards, for airline miles, then retail stores, and banks.

Did you know in the US the more credit cards you have and pay them back regularly the better credit score you have which will facilitate getting loans or a mortgage!! I had to indeed get credit cards in order to increase my credit score!! It is controversial, so if you have no debt your score is very low.

Several years ago a boom of thrift stores hit the US or the East Coast, also rich people shop there. Years ago you could get a sweater for 1 or 2 $ it’s now 4 or 6$… the thrift stores are full or merchandise and space it getting smaller and smaller. Before you could drop off almost any “junk” now they became extremely selective!

You find some clothing that was washed just once or not even worn! Why not buy there seasonal decoration? That said the Dollar stores are booming just as well… there are still lots of folks that are thrifty when it comes to spending. - But when it comes to tech gadgets that’s another story.

And household appliances aren’t meant to last very long as well… sell sell sell, keep the economy running. It is a big problem we have seen during lockdown… Tally Weijl stores had huge money problem and received a big loan… many stores in US are closing, perhaps it is meant to happen as there is a market saturation of everything even food!

I think the Japanese are known for minimalist lifeform.

The issue why people keep shopping is also the advertising campaigns that run where ever you go and with google ads each website is flooded with it, newspapers, magazines TV… where else… it is the humans weakness to become victims and there is the prestige thing that a human “needs”…
Not all follow this stream but it is high time to rethink our true life values, what is really important and what not. Do you need this today and tomorrow, can you live without it.

I also lived during the communism era, as we know their economic principles don’t work, the shoe store in my hometown had perhaps 5 shoe models… As a child I don’t remember lacking anything like food or clothing, we had a TV and a car, but we didn’t have this excessive materials since either it wasn’t available or not needed. - It is true that the older generation has a different view than the younger ones, we also didn’t grow up with mobile phones and internet, so technically the technology has also changed the economy and therefore shopping habits…

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The price has always been a wonder for me!
Here, it’s easily x3-x8 (material, decorations, margin…). The price level could be a brake to overconsumption and so it encourages us to minimalism for clothes!

Currently reading “The Fabric of the Digital Idiot” and the author said in short that screens also have negative effects on learning, cerebral activity or make people more depressed, nervous, hypnotized by TV and that puts the brain under stress with multiple stimuli. He explained that directors of digital firms such as Apple put their children in traditional schools where they limit or don’t use screens, tablets, apps… The same products they sell to others.

Some schools get funded by sponsors such as commercial companies, TV channels. They play ads and news (weather, sports…) for a period of time to children at school. They were most of the time not educative, but children think that there’s an educative meaning or it’s good because it is shown during class by the teacher.
Some researches measured what children memorized and concluded that children memorized better ads than news.
If exposed for a long time, years, they can create a new habit for people and create a different perception: children who got exposed to these ads at school tend to have a materialist conception of the world. Brands, rich… The sales of the TV channel in question soared. The channel knew the effects on children.

Coke

Another ex: soda companies and school.
They have programs where if you buy sodas in A school, the A school gets more funds. So they allowed the soda consumption during classes.
Here’s an example of a real letter linked to this matter: https://newint.org/features/1999/08/05/coke

"Here is how we can do it:

  1. Allow students to purchase and consume vended products throughout the day. If sodas are not allowed in classes, consider allowing juices, teas and waters.
  2. Locate machines where they are accessible to the students all day. Location, location, location is the key.
  3. A list of soda products is enclosed to allow you to select from the entire menu.
  4. A calendar of promotional events is enclosed to help you advertise soda products.

I know this is ‘just one more thing from downtown’, but the long-term benefits are worth it."

Commercial companies also do educational kits that they distribute to children.
Ex of what children can read:

  • the only important thing to check for breakfast is the fat proportion in ingredients (from a cereal’s brand)
  • carbon dioxide (climate warming) could make plants grow bigger (from a coal’s foundation at a period of time)
  • cutting trees is good for the environment because it imitates how nature gets rid of trees (for a company that sells diapers)

Or commercial companies organize visits in their shops, companies for children.
At the end of the visit, children of 6 years old get coupons and they are told that these are coupons to give to their parents so they can return and buy what they saw today.

It’s brainwashing!

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We could also talk about marketing techniques to make us buy!
Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/29-psychological-tricks-to-make-you-buy-more/

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Or when you go to IKEA or some shops and you only have 1 way to exit, so you saw almost all the products they sell :slight_smile:

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afbeelding

This one would have the opposite effect on Dutch people!
To me the price just went from 1 dollar and about 70 cents to 1699 dollar! :rofl:

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That’s what I also thought, for a moment. Then I remembered they use commas as digit separators.
You must think this in European terms, not with comma but with a point.
1.699 euros vs. 1699 euros.

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I’ve often heard about this “credit score” but the actually meaning isn’t quite clear. China has it’s social credit which gives you benefits for “Good behavior” so is it similar, but in a financial sense?
Sorry if it’s a dumb question :slight_smile:

Yeah, that’s why I think privacy is important, even though google ads don’t kill you they still affect your life in such ways as you describe.

Makes sense, if you think about it news and ads are meant to be perceived differently. Ads are meant to be remembered and associated with brands while News is there to evoke some momentary feeling or just for an informative purpose.

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From the same iconography, there are other examples too:

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I didn’t know it was called the “Gruen transfer”.
For water, we have to go at the back of the supermarket.
When we enter a supermarket, colorful fruits are at the beginning or a central space.
Yeah, clothes shops have music.
I fall for buy 1, get 1.
I don’t like when they put the timing left before the end of their sales event, that creates “emergency”.

" 21. Act like a Doctor

Do your buyers open up to you?

As humans, we enjoy talking with people that ask insightful questions that help us open up and share details about ourselves.

Researchers at Harvard studied what happens in our brains when we discuss information about our favorite subject - ourselves. The researchers showed that talking about ourselves is linked to pleasure, and that it improved not just our self-perception, but also our perception of the person we are talking to. This is why doctors are perceived as trustworthy, respected and friendly – because they tend to ask questions that you wouldn’t normally answer to others.

Salespeople who ask insightful questions to their buyers create a more enjoyable buying experience, which helps increase sales."

Source: https://www.superoffice.com/blog/science-based-selling/

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Oh, I prefer to know when it ends, so that I can think: “Well, I could buy it tomorrow/next week/next month.” If I don’t know, I might think right now is my only chance … :stuck_out_tongue:

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Lol that’s why I unsuscribe from shopping mails. They still find a way to send mails, but decluterring mails or see less shopping mails in the mailbox in the morning or throughout the day, the feeling I got is :ok_hand:. Less temptations too!

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Can’t agree with you more Facebook/YT comments use to have a negative effect on me, so getting out was the best thing I ever did in my life. There are weirdos on FB that everything you post they take it personally, even if they were never posted there relating to them.

What made me get out of FB was that everything you add there becomes their property so i felt betrayed when i couldn’t delete my own pictures i had on the page. Once you close the account pictures and all are deleted forever so I can finally sleep in peace not wondering what they can do with my grandkids pics.

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Yeah, agree. Though yours and my pictures may still be there, their just not public. It’s called shadow profiling. I think you should be able to remove pictures, posts etc. especially if it’s something embarrasing or bad said/done in once youth, which isn’t you today.

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no wonder it’s also called “Fraudbook”… it’s gotten so bad… including many websites that want you to agree to so many cookies under the disguise of “security” which is in fact trailing you and wasting money for all the third parties company to analyze you or perhaps they make even money from you without you knowing… sadly internet isn’t anymore what it used to be… it’s a footprint shadowing compared to gestapo… I believe it started with 9/11 long time ago we could read about the nsa compound in Utah that has built all kinds of storages and servers to retain all kind of info and data and phone calls, to run this facility back then it cost 1 million U$ per month for the electricity usage… if you google it, you might still find that info.

We are just a puppets of capitalism and economy, without economy what else can we live on… perhaps going back to the roots, the age of kings and pheasants is coming, you won’t keep much and give a lot or everything… where is middle class?

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Well I try to live my life on my terms, not caring about all the different -isms as far as possible. :slight_smile:

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A worthy topic. Dollars, and cents, better yet :smile:sense!
Tips you can use, :money_mouth_face: :bank: :atm: :money_mouth_face: Financially


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This is Truth!
Prices of Basic needs should be capped!

  • Food
  • Clothing
    AND
  • Housing
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:moneybag: Money :moneybag:
🪙 Nuggets 🪙

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This is consumerism - it’s an entertaining watch.

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Recycling, recovery, reconditioning, reuse - it has been done since ancient times and is also valid in present …
When you can’t afford new things, but you can refurbish and reuse old things, a visit to flea markets/junk shops can be a saving solution.
I like old things and only if I feel a special attraction, something that seems to be calling me, I buy, normally only what my budget allows… Many old things, things that I bought from flea markets, have been refurbished and reused. Moreover, some of them have found new owners. I like to bring them back to life or give them another life.This is my hobby.
At the flea market

  • old vase made of white clay and shards (approximately 100 years after the black color on the surface / the difference from the broken clay and the ceramic models, of course, it is made by hand, without firing in a ceramic oven).
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    IMAG1045
    IMAG1045700×933 278 KB

Of course, it must be cleaned, the cracks repaired and then I will apply a layer of protective varnish.

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@daccrismel_71,

I think you might like a few of these posts.

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Decluttering is best done one small step at a time.

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