Stuff, we just have too much of it! Yet we still find ourselves at the local ‘superstore’ on the weekends buying more and more stuff.

We have become painfully addicted to buying new stuff. Sadly, we are at a point in society where our perceived value, human value, is based on the perception of others. Basically, their perception of our stuff!

Our primary identity has become that of the consumer….Yikes!

So how did America go from ‘family’ being the number one priority to consumerism being our focus? It is surprisingly quite calculated. Jeffrey Kaplan’s recent article in Orion magazine titled, “The Gospel of Consumption,” sheds some light on the problem’s history.

In the late 1920s, after the war, America had excess manufacturing capacity. So we began to invent needs to fulfill that excess manufacturing capacity. Kaplan writes:

"In a 1927 interview with the magazine Nation’s Business, Secretary of Labor James J. Davis provided some numbers to illustrate a problem that the New York Times called “need saturation.” Davis noted that 'the textile mills of this country can produce all the cloth needed in six months’ operation each year' and that 14 percent of the American shoe factories could produce a year’s supply of footwear. The magazine went on to suggest, 'It may be that the world’s needs ultimately will be produced by three-days’ work a week.'

But instead of creating a three-day work week “America’s business and political elite found a way to defuse the dual threat of stagnating economic growth and a radicalized working class in what one industrial consultant called “The Gospel of Consumption”—the notion that people could be convinced that however much they have, it isn’t enough.”

To read the rest of this article CLICK HERE

So where does this leave us……longer work weeks, high level of work dissatisfaction, and according to studies a higher rate of unhappiness. Matter of fact national happiness peaked in the 1950’s and has been declining ever since! To put is simply all the “stuff” we lust after does not tend to make us happier.

What started as an economic concern is now a spiritual one. Consider contributing to your future happiness by voluntarily simplifying your life and reducing your consumerism, which will add dollars to your budget and may help you decrease your work week and increase your free time. You might be surprised at how much physical and spiritual happiness it can bring you!

Stay Well and Healthy,

Michelle