I'm pretty sure most everyone reading this realizes we live in a consumerist society. Fewer of those reading think that consumerism is out of control and a big problem for folks on a finite planet's ecosystem.
Everyone still seems to want that new-better-than-the-last-one iPhone. The other day I found myself being served in a Kmart by a minimum wage checker who had that very same brand new iPhone worn like so much bling on her belt and I could not help but wonder how someone working at a minimum wage job could afford one.
The answer, of course, is she couldn't.
The fact is that the pressure to consume is ever present on myriad levels and intense whether it's a phone, car, or boat. Way back when, I remember the phrase "You are what you eat" but today the more apt phrase should be "You are what you buy/spend".
Looking at various boating/cruising blogs and video channels you'd be blind not to notice a certain formula where folks decide to downsize and simplify their lives by buying a boat to go cruising.
So far, so good.
What usually follows this downsized/simplified state of affairs is an intense bout of consumerist mayhem because, when all is said and done, we are what we buy/spend...
A film you really might want to check out.
Face it, to cruise on a boat affordably in a sustainable manner you're going to have to shed the out-of-control consumerist monkey on your back.
More on the subject when we look at how we might turn that Ranger 26 into a workable VolksCruiser,
Heck you were lucky to be served by a human in K-mart. We have been to K-marts in New Zealand and Australia and it is only self service......So that minnimum wage job does not even exist. I am all for consumerisim, how else am I going to find used bargains if people stop buying stuff that they do not need.
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