Zero-G Network

We are definitely witnessing a resurgence in conspicuous consumption. I saw it on the roadway today -- quite a few SUVs with their $4,500 rims and low profile tires and, interestingly, tinted side windows.

This has long been illegal in this state but somehow there are quite a few who purposely disregard that law and somehow they're still driving around. It just probably isn't enforced, much like driving while using the cellularized telephone. Ho-hum.

Can't say that I don't willfully ignore the law, though. On occasion I blow through a red light on the bike. When no one's around. There's the crucial difference -- it's not that I do so to be conspicuous, unlike some alpha male jackoff who has every intention of flaunting his Escalade's tinted windows because he knows it's illegal. I wonder if conspicuous consumption is common in other societies. I will say that yes, it likely exists, but with some caveats. I'd wager it isn't something the middle class of other societies do, rather it's probably held to those who are much higher up the economic totem.

As for me I think that I've reached my consumptive limit, sometime back in 2007. All my needs are met, I don't particularly strive for anything new, and indeed I more or less limit my purchases to replacement items these days.

I brew beer and on occasion I think about a new brew tree or a recirculating wort chiller or stainless fermenter, etc., but I realize my old turkey fryer and a white plastic bucket do just fine. The turkey fryer also fries turkeys, how about that. I spend some replacement money on new tubing, or a new cork or some bottle caps, yes. But my needs have been met with what I have.

Same with my cellularized telephone, a hand me down. Five, maybe six years old. It's on the Zero-G network, a good five generations behind. I can find my way around town just find without a nav app, thank you very much. I can find an Italian restaurant, too. My 1996 California paper map works just fine -- we're only adding/expanding onto freeways that already existed back then.

Still have a standard television. It ain't wide screen, it ain't HD, has no HDMI inputs. It's big, yes, but it still works. Doin' fine.

My 1997 bicycle has 14,000 miles on it and I'd like to put another 44,000 on it. No intention of replacing it with a carbon fiber unit or other such technological wizardry just because I can. It works fine. Just gotta keep up with the maintenance, that's not too hard.

I'd go on and on but you get my drift. I have reached the point of saturation, where any further consumerism on my part would be artificial. My intrinsic needs have clearly been met...and arguably I'm better off than many, which would lead some to argue that if I didn't have the housal unit or the boat or the three cars or the XXX already then I'd be clamoring for more. Perhaps, but I don't think so.

I hit that consumptive limit in 2007, when I decided I'd had enough having stuff. It became clearer to me that material ownership isn't that critical -- that social ownership is more valuable. Social capital is something that I strive to improve these days although with mixed reviews. This is a tough one for me, but nonetheless the consumption of a new vehicle or housal unit or bicycle or iPhone won't allow me to reach that any faster or better. Today we find artificial demand pumped into us by excessive advertising and marketing and of course we can't afford all that new stuff so we borrow from the future to gain access to those goods today...hence a nation full of personal debtors, personal bankruptcies, municipal debts, city debts, state debts and federal debts.

Not only are my needs met but satiety is achieved, along with carrying very little debt. Not a bad place to live in, I should say...