Consumerism is killing us

The Limits of Consumption

The essential promise of a consumer society is that virtually all satisfaction can be purchased. This promise runs so deep in us that we've come to take our identity from our capacity to purchase: I shop, therefore I am. The dependency on shopping is not just about things, it includes the belief that what is fulfilling or needed in life can be bought -- from happiness to healing; from love to laughter; from raising a child to caring for someone.


In our effort to find satisfaction in consumption, we're converted from citizens to consumers. The implications are profound. Consider the impact on just two parts of our lives: the family and the community.


Families have lost much of their function; communities have become incompetent.

Yeah, yeah. we consumers can still change things. Buy that Prius, that CFL bulb, that vacation house, that...Those will solve our problems and bring us together,  right?

The way to the good life is the way of a competent community recognizing its abundance. We see that if we are to be the creators of our future, we must become citizens, not consumers. Consumers are dependent on the creations of the market; and in the end, they produce nothing much but waste. Citizens are those who choose to create the life, the neighborhood, the world from their own gifts and the gifts of others. It is the shift from consumer to citizen that will restore vital functions to the family and the neighborhood and reconstruct the competence of communities -- all of which come under assault in a consumer culture.