The Ugly Side Of Consumerism

Obsessive consumerism is the bane of our times. An article titled 19 Ugly Things You Didn’t Know About Materialism aptly asks these questions:

• Are you a wage-slave, working at a job you hate so you can afford things you don’t need?
• Are you more focused on remodeling your kitchen than developing relationships?
• Are you more interested in how you’ll look in a bathing suit than in your actual health?

It’s hard to believe people actually run behind material gains rather than developing themselves as human beings and achieving their optimal physical and intellectual potential. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, you should only have sufficient money and above that it is merely a nihilistic pursuit. You should live to earn, you should earn to live. So does that make Bill Gates bad, as he has billions of dollars. No I don’t mean that.

Bill Gates, or people like him, earn money from what they do, because of what they do. Money in that case is an outcome, a consequence. The problem arises when money no longer remains a consequence, it becomes a pursuit, an obsession. It becomes a problem when it’s not the functionality of the car that matters, but how rich it makes you look.

Excessive materialism is a sign of low self-esteem. You are always seeking acknowledgement from the others, and you always fear their scorn for not having certain things.

There is a strong positive correlation between materialism and several mental and physical maladies. In other words, people who pursue money and things at the expense of relationships and other meaningful endeavors are more likely to suffer from these 19 problems:

Read about these 19 problems.

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