Consumerism

Standard of living has been increasing steadily since the foundation of America. The industrial revolution made the variety of consumer products available to the public much greater, and as a result, people owned more things. But when is enough enough. People now consume beyond their limits, and are allowed to do so thanks to credit cards and home-equity loans. Even with the environmental movement coming in, companies are still managing to get people to buy more and more stuff. The current attitude to environmentalism is "buy green." It is far too rare nowadays for us to hear a "green" corporation or organization telling us to "buy less." This is undoubtibly the more common sense approach, since even the green things that are purchased inevitably will end up in the trash to clear more room for whatever new green things we bought. Now these green products will end up in the landfill like every other piece of trash, and not to mention that the power and energy going into making and transporting the product is now wasted.