HISTORY OF IDEAS - Consumerism

It’s only very recently in history that we’ve been able to buy more than the bare necessities. Can the history of consumption guide us to a wiser future?

FURTHER READING

“Society takes the business of making money very seriously indeed. Much of our education system is geared towards giving people the skills to get a good job and a steady income.

By contrast, very little attention is given to how to spend money well – by which we mean, in ways that stand a chance of properly increasing our sense of well-being and therefore justifying the sacrifices that went into earning the cash. The very subject sounds slightly absurd. Surely there is no challenge here, other than making sure we have enough (by which we mean, ever more) in our wallets....”

MORE SCHOOL OF LIFE

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SOCIAL MEDIA

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CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with:

Mike Booth

[mateuszmaciag]

Nothing describes us better than a quick glance on the things that we are willing to pay for.

[me]

Doing well by doing good. That's the kind of entrepreneur the world needs.

[dudedude]

"we chose wealth over virtue" man that fucking hit me hard.

[ChrisMcSweeney]

As an After Effects nerd, this video was beautiful to watch. Do pass along my compliments to the animator(s).

[luckystrike]

"capitalism will give you cancer and then tell you it's a good thing! It's certainly is good for the healthcare industry and actually does stimulate the economy. But if you getting cancer is beneficial for the economy, perhaps you need to adopt a new economy." - Angela Davis

[sonaligrover]

I love that the school of life, without fail, gives us a light at the end of the tunnel. Every day we are bombarded with opinions of all that is wrong with the world by news channels, social media, colleagues, friends and family, but no one really follows this up with a reasonable path forward.

The solutions-based approach of this channel has grounded me over the years.

[jlapierremusic]

“We have chosen wealth over virtue” -the School of Life

[michaelluciano]

Watching this video sparked a few really great hour long discussions over some drinks Saturday night with friends about Western Spirituality and how it correlates to wealth and virtue. Thank you being such an inspiration, I love your videos especially " On Romanticism "

[StephenDeagle]

I find toilet golf deeply fulfilling of my basic need for escapism during trying periods.

[pratikshetty]

I ended up having ice-cream after looking at that ice-cream. Damn it! Consumerism!

[rbfazed]

I find it great to learn not only about how consumerism came to be instead of just how we live with it now and how it effects us. I feel its necessary to understand how something started in order to fix it

[Mark]

One must always remember that every dollar you spend represents time that you have worked. We should be more thoughtful of how we spend and what is the benefit of spending rather than simply a bit of retail therapy.
The typical example is people who send their kids to ordinary schools and buy luxurious cars and houses. Their need to be seen as respectable is greater than their obligation to educate their children to the best of their ability.

[sharperguy]

It's actually a huge fallacy that consumer spending is what drives the economy. Consumerism is just what people choose to do with wealth once it exists. What is required to create wealth is human labour organised efficiently in combination with capital in the form of natural resources, infrastructure, tools and factories. If people decided to save more and spend less, the economy would not collapse. There would simply be a shift in economic production from consumer goods into capital goods, allowing further wealth creation in the future.

The final point of the video is still good though. Aside from the so-called "pointless" goods which many people spend their money on today, there are many things which we can now afford which genuinely improve human happiness. These kind of things were not available back in the time when there was less resources available, less infrastructure developed, and less technology discovered.

[blackfirefire]

Interesting to see what happens to consumerism when automation really starts to kick in

[fouadkassar]

this is turning out to be the most interesting series of the school of life. I rewatched the entire series nearly everytime they upload a new episode LOL!

[bolivar]

Thanks a lot for this excellent lesson! It is so true that we can learn to generate profit through helping people, and then use that profit to help even more people.
Apart from the obvious and wonderful example of The School of Life, here is another example I love:
Especially for friends who want to play rock and blues on the guitar, Justin Sandercoe is probably the best online guitar teacher. All his lessons are for free. But he has his own publishing company, based in London. So if you want to support him, you can buy his excellent Songbooks, CD's, DVD's... The products on his online shop are great and you know that by buying them you are supporting his free online lessons, so that everybody can learn how to play!
He has half a million subscribers on youtube. Indeed he is the kind of teacher who wants to teach the entire world! What I love about him is that he is a " virtuous" man too. For example, he posts a video to teach how to play a certain super famous song, knowing that he will get thousands of clicks, and at the end of the lesson he takes the opportunity to read you an article about the genocide in Darfur. Just to tell everyone that we should inform ourselves better and do what we can do.

On his excellent website he has sections like " Global Issues " and " Food for Thought" . And on his newsletter recently he mentioned that he was going to take a course on Philosophy at Oxford. ( He would learn much more at TSOL though....)

He is doing something he loves, he is enriching many people's lives, and he is making enough money to live with dignity. That's a very beautiful, meaningful life!

[josephfunnell]

Forgot to mention the centrality of slavery and colonial theft in amassing wealth within these consumerist societies ...

[izpFhKOcFnB]

Adverts subvert our rational mind and tap into the primitive part of us!

[gavedu]

comments:
5% about consumerism
5% about how this video is good
90% about toilet golf

[goodinsects]

We should shop for art, books and local produce. Beauty and the appreciation of masterful skills. We should shop for items and objects that engage our minds so we don't sit idle in waste.
We should shop for improvement to the disciplines that engage our scenes and indulge in the imagination of those that experience our brought goods.