Unrequited Consumerism
Unrequited Consumerism: that’s what this site is really all about. It’s about the obsession that we Americans have for our products. We love them. We buy them. We can’t live without them. Every gadget and gizmo, every little trinket. Some of us buy them and then sell them all for practically nothing every few months at a garage sale, where we can “pass along the love” to someone else. Others of us buy them and throw them away.
They may last weeks, they may last months, they may last days. Sometimes they even last years, but lately, with a steady decline in quality of products in our country, that’s rare. Even household appliances scarcely last much longer than the warantee.
Most of us can’t afford to buy them. We buy them on our credit cards and go deeper and deeper into debt. We buy them and throw them away before they are paid for!
And what do I mean by unrequited? Corporate American doesn’t share our vision of what a product should be. Their love for us consumers is purely motivated by their greed. They don’t care that their products don’t work as long as they can be first to market. They don’t care that their products break down so long as more of us throw them away than ask for a refund. And we buy so much garbage we can scarcely keep track of the user manuals and receipts. It’s rare we bring anything back to the store and ask for a refund! And that’s OK with them because it doesn’t affect their bottom line. Their love for us is purely a tease.
Our landfills are full of our junk. Our houses are full of our junk. Who will save us from the abyss of our obsession?
-Basil
