Speaker 1: Why don't you let me fix you some of this new mo' cocoa drink? All natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua, no artificial sweeteners. What the hell are you talking about?

Speaker 2: In 2021, the average person is estimated to encounter 6,000 to 10,000 advertisements every single day. This is double the number of advertisements we'd have seen in 2007, and 12 times more than what people were seeing in the 70s. We encounter ads everywhere, on TV, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, magazines, and Spotify. There's a very good chance you had an advertisement before or around this very video. I bring up this overwhelming advertisement-driven lifestyle we're living because it hints at the larger concern that I have with our current way of life, mass consumption. Consumerism is defined as the preoccupation of society with the acquisition of consumer goods. We're constantly being told to buy more, want more, have more, that what you have now is not enough, that maybe if you just

Speaker 3: bought this one product or service, your problems would be solved. This messaging, paired with an

Speaker 2: oversaturated culture of consumerism and increasingly easier ways to purchase goods at the touch of your fingers, has led to an enormous increase in consumer spending over the past several decades, which I believe has in turn greatly affected our collective finances, joy, and environment. That's why I wanted to make this video essay today. My channel is all about trying to live your best life by leveraging personal finance and living intentionally, while also incorporating elements of sustainability and minimalism, which makes this topic of consumerism so very relevant to me. If we can cut down on our consumption and escape this cult of buying more that has been drilled into us from years and years of advertisements, then I believe we can help save our wallets, our peace of mind, and our planet, all at the same time. So first off, let's talk money. Mass consumption is really expensive on an individual level. USA Today reported in 2019 that Americans spend an average of $18,000 on non-essentials every year. That is a whole down payment on a house, or a master's degree that you could pay for, or an entire year's worth of rent in a really nice apartment. Bottom line, that is a lot of money. In that same USA Today article, they break down what type of buckets of non-essential spending people are devoting their money to. Here's the chart so that you can see all of it, but I wanted to highlight a few items that stood out to me. $108 a month goes to impulse purchases, about $94 goes to subscription boxes, and about $178 goes to takeout or delivery. That is a nearly $400 example of unnecessary mass consumption that is hurting people's wallets every single month. That's not even beginning to touch on the other artifacts of mass consumption that we see in that breakdown, such as coffee every day, bottled water, multiple streaming

Speaker 1: services, and online shopping. Now you've got the idea. Put plenty of coke in that refrigerator.

Speaker 4: One for you, one for me. I love it. I got us a little something too. Yeah? Yep. One for you,

Speaker 2: and one for me. And look, I'm not saying you need to cut all non-essential spending from your life. Some non-essential spending can really make a fun time. Like if I want to go to the cheesecake factory with my friends, I'm probably going to do that every once in a while. I love my Godiva chocolate cheesecake. But what I think we need to start doing is instead of cutting it all out, just starting to trim it and redirect it, using that money for things that are going to be more meaningful in the long term, rather than buying things that we just want impulsively and that we probably don't need in our lives. I think it's really important for people, including myself, to try to break out of these habits of buying things impulsively or things that we don't need or aren't going to use in the long term, because all of that is a product of the mass consumption culture that we live in. Our culture promotes convenience, whether that's the convenience of getting your food delivered to your doorstep despite almost doubling the cost sometimes, or whether it's the ease in which you can purchase just about anything with a click of a button on Amazon. But what happens is we get trapped in a cycle of consumption, which keeps us desperate for money so we can continue to buy more things. I saw a stat the other day that blew my mind, and it was that 60% of millennials who earn $100,000 or more a year are living paycheck to paycheck, which is wild, and a lot of reason for that is because of lifestyle. A lifestyle of consumption where buying expensive things or just simply buying a lot of

Speaker 4: things is the norm. People get a rush when they buy something new, and for some, it helps them

Speaker 2: feel like they're keeping up with their friends or the people they see online. But all of that is a fantasy. Companies and media influence you to buy more things, which in turn forces you to continue working to pay for those things, often as an employee at those very same companies. We're like little gerbils on a wheel, just keep on running but we don't go anywhere, we just keep buying things and then we have to keep working and you're stuck and you're stuck until you get off the wheel. Choosing to turn away from overconsumption is how you escape that cycle. It's about choosing yourself over products in a lifestyle that's been fed to you by advertisements and media, and it's about building up your financial health so that you don't have to live paycheck to paycheck and that you can have financial freedom one day. The environmental impact. Rejecting mass consumption can absolutely help your finances because you're spending less on random stuff that you don't need, and it can help your peace of mind because you can start to escape that feeling of comparison and feeling like you always need to keep up with other people online or celebrities or anything like that. It's a peaceful existence when you can start turning away from consumption. But I think an equally, if not more important reason to reject mass consumption is the environmental impact. Consumerism takes a huge toll on our planet. Americans alone throw away an average of 81 pounds of clothes and textiles every year. That's just for one person. And as a nation, we dispose of about 26 million tons of plastics each year. And the US is not the only country doing this. It's not just their problem. There's so much excess in the world right now. National Geographic recently reported that, this unprecedented consumer appetite is undermining the natural systems we all depend on and making it even harder for the world's poor to meet their basic needs. And that, most of the environmental problems we see today can be linked to consumption. Oh wait, did I say that was a recent report? My bad. That came out in 2004. So the problem has gotten even worse since then. We have a more globalized economy, and it's easier than ever to buy things online from all over the world. So it's just exacerbating this problem of consumption. Not to mention, our appetite has gotten a lot worse for consumption because of things like social media. I'm not saying this all to be alarmist. I think we all know the threats that face our planet right now when it comes to climate change. And I know there's a lot of people and systems that are to blame for this. But I think there is a way that we can help contribute to bettering this planet and changing the culture. And that's by changing our habits around consumption. We have to turn away from the temptations of consumption. Instead of buying a new wardrobe with every new trend that comes out on TikTok, curate your closet with staples that are timeless and durable. Keep your current phone if it works, instead of lining up to buy whatever new iPhone Apple has that year. Gift experiences for people instead of products, and start practicing finding joy and excitement in things that don't involve spending money and consuming. I don't really blame us for falling into these habits of consumption, because it was the blueprint that was laid out for us. Be a good consumer. Make companies money. Maybe if you buy all these products, they will fill whatever hole is inside of you. I'm not talking about dildos, that I'm realizing now that sounds like dildos, but any product really. Mass consumption in general, it makes you feel whole. That's at least the story that we've been told, but it's not true. I think there can be so much fun, excitement, and benefit to rejecting mass consumption and adopting a more simple, minimalist, and sustainable approach to life. If you're on the fence about it, try it out for a month. Try just 30 days of living a little bit more simply and not consuming as much, and then at the end, see how you feel. See if you've saved a ton more money, and if you kind of like it, and then go from there. And if you're already interested or you're already doing it, that's amazing. I want to hear what you think in the comments below, so let me know how you've gone about living a simple life, or rejecting consumerism, or what steps you're hoping to take to get there. I plan to do more video essays like this in the future, from dissecting impulse shopping to talking about how social media keeps us poor, so if you're interested in things like that, please subscribe. I also post weekly videos just in general about personal finance, money management, living your best life, all those things, so if you're not subscribed, please do. And if you'd like to support this channel and the content that I'm making, you can also donate some money and quote, buy me a coffee in the link below. I put it there and I just started it, so feel free to do so, but also don't feel like you have to. But thank you so much for watching. I really hope this video was interesting to you guys, maybe helpful or inspiring, but yeah, thank you again for watching, and I will see you guys next week. Alright, bye.