Always Unsatisfied

Modern humans work a lot. 40 hours a week, every week, for 45 years in the U.S. has become the standard. The initial shift to the 40 hour work week was a relief from unfair working conditions in the early 20th century United States that had children working 16 hour days. Now, we know that we don’t need to work this much to feed ourselves. Most of us work inside all day, then get into a car or bus, then get home. Maybe 30 minutes is spent outside for an office worker if all they do is get in and out of the car. This cycle compartmentalizes our lives into inside and outside, or work and leisure. Inside is for being productive, and time spent outside helps us “regenerate” until the next shift. Outside is reserved for leisure, for most. This distinct divide between work and relaxation is running the United States into a rut. Everything costs money, and there aren’t many ways to get money without working.

Weekends are when we go on outdoorsy trips, long weekends in particular. Spending time in nature on a daily basis is not a luxury that everyone has — especially those that work more than one job. What are we doing during the week if we can’t find any time to spend outside, then? We shop. Even if one is frugal, there are basic necessities which carry a price tag. More than 90% of American homes have televisions. All of the ads that come on tell us our lives are worse off without their special product. Americans live a life of forced consumption; no one has a choice but to keep on buying things like toiletries, clothes, gas, transportation, energy, and things we actually need. The cycle of working to buy things is unable to stop in the current way society is structured. I struggle to afford things past basic necessities. If I make more money I’ll be happier… right?

When a person’s income rises, they do not save all the new money that they are now earning. Similarly to how increasing energy efficiency only causes us to use more energy (Owen, D. 2010), when you get a raise at work, you feel that you have more money that you did not need before. The logical thing to do after getting a raise is to put it into savings, but our society constantly repeats the phrase “you earned it”. When deciding whether to splurge on something, a friend may say “you deserve it” or something else along the lines. Society is structured around getting people to spend as much of their money as they can, so naturally, when one’s income rises, they go spend more money and continue the cycle of work to shop. After increasing consumption because of the raise, we find ourselves in the same spot as before: constantly “needing” more material wealth to show people, or ourselves, that we “made it”. Catalyzing the process is the concept of planned obsolescence: companies make their products wear down at a certain rate to get you back in the store buying the latest model. Examples include all Apple products, all cars, all everything. “Built to last” is just a slogan that gets you to buy it again because it worked ‘so great!’ the first time.

Individuals in the United States make up around five percent of the world’s population, but use 20% of its natural resources and 25% of its energy. One twentieth of the world uses a quarter of its energy. Addictive consumption, a concept coined after the second world war, is the cause of this massive disparity in energy usage around the world. Individuals are not the only victims of addictive consumption: corporations fall into it with their endless stocks of greed. Real costs of addictive consumption are hidden from the American public. In 2017, the year the U.S. was hit by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX News spent a combined total of 260 minutes talking about climate change (Fritz, A. 2018). $265 million dollars in damage and they still did not care until the end of 2019 when climate events began to pile up hand over fist (Goldrick, G. 2019). New South Wales in Australia burned for 240 days during the 2019–20 bushfire season (Torres, E. 2020). Despite finally being taught the true nature of climate change through the 2019 news cycle, Americans still lack common-ground when it comes to consumption habits and environmental degradation. Politicization of climate change has made talking about it at family dinner taboo. So, instead of modifying habits to be more conscious of the ecosystems in our world, we choose to bury our head in the sand and say “Why would I worry about something that I am unable to change?”

References

Corbett, J. B. (2006). Communicating nature: How we create and understand environmental messages. Island Press.

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