(no subject)

[holly_evolving]

One of the things we have to understand about consumer culture is that consumerism is a survival trait. It’s resource gathering. And because it’s rooted in a basic, instinctive need, it’s easily exploited. When we come down on individuals for wastefully accumulating stuff, we’re missing the real culprits. We are surrounded by advertising. You are bombarded by ads whenever you look at a website. There are commercials and billboards all over. There are sections of trusted publications and whole websites devoted to things you can buy. We are all being manipulated, all the time, by ad agencies and marketing departments. The buyer is not the problem. The seller is. The person addicted to buying things they don’t need or even want needs to be helped. The businesses that knowingly manipulate people into burying themselves in stuff and debt - they need to be stopped.