Buying endless consumer tat is a really fucking weird basis for a society. If you stop to think about it. It is weird. It is weird for well being to be tied into the accumulation of tat and trivia. And yet, it is the norm. We live lives of such comfort that kings of yesteryear would envious us... but it is not enough for most of us. Look at mess the whirlwind of Xmas excess has left in its wake.

A 25 inch tv is enough. A 10 year old smart phone is enough. A 20 year old car is mostly perfectly fine. There is no reason to feed this addiction: but what were yesterday's luxuries become today's necessities.

Fromm, the Sane Society:

Consumerism: The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same mental pathology does not make these people sane.

Basing life on the accumulation of things is irrational. Is chimp behaviour. Any pleasure is hollow and suspect. One should use one's money to open up the world of experiences not dead and inert things.