How America Got So Good At Buying Sh*t

I just got that grammarly advert about the boat immediately at the sponsorship point. Straight after, "this video is sponsored by grammarly." 😭

This is also a key point in fighting climate change. The easiest solution with the most impact that we can implement NOW is to simply buy less trash products.

"so what do we do when we're full" smash cut to the ad got a belly laugh and "yup, more side hustles" was my gut instinct, unintentional maybe, but funny

Consumerism is the single most driving factor of wealth inequality. When you consume more than you earn you are handing over wealth.

On a related note, I very quickly soured over stuff like Afterpay. When I first heard of them, I thought, "Okay, it could help those that are a little strapped for money by making multiple payments over time, even though it means tacking on interest, effectively making it more expensive in the end. If done right, it could be a viable option - far from the best, but working at the very least."

That benefit of the doubt lasted about... 3.7 seconds, because that was how long it took before I saw an ad for Afterpay. The ad immediately disgusted me, because apparently, the marketers who came up with it thought it would be a good idea to stick with the old consumerist message of, "Just because you are poor does not mean you cannot act - and most importantly (for us), spend - like you are rich." It showed the central figure using Afterpay to buy a bunch of fancy dresses and jewelry. Even if you set aside how these two things have some of the most extensive histories of simply being nothing but ripoffs to all customers, rich and poor, it all just screamed the same thing that led to nearly every American now having: credit card debt (and I say "nearly" because just about the only Americans without credit card debt... are the 3-4 uber-wealthy families that own the credit cards).

And what I found most sad about it is that it is undoubtedly going to be just as effective at saddling people with exorbitant debt as credit cards have (and still are).

Is it wrong that I hope for another French-style revolution to happen right now?

I’ll say this: now I’m earning on exchanges with Moonacy Protocol. I’ve made way more than with crypto trading

Why do other economies want to sell to american consumers? Wouldn't it be a better idea to just produce whatever domestic consumers want? I know about comparative advantages etc. but it doesn't make much sense to me why e.g. china chooses to run a deficit when they have a bunch of labor spent catering to US consumers that could be spent on goods and services for chinese consumers.

It's easy when you suck life from the rest of the world 🤷🏼‍♂️

Man I love America, but I kind of hate our society/ economy......Its not great our economy is set up around consumption... we're getting this weird dual economy of investment groups with all the money
and poor consumers, rich in only credit cards...and there's fhis step up from human scale, to gaudy scale.. we need cheap affordable vehicle's in this country.. but we're getting that new 80k scout truck.. why? We already have expensive Rivian truck?
With the types of jobs we got mainly whose the customers for these trucks!?

i like this new "minimalism" trend. you are so free if you dont expend in random stuff, specially status related. you can switch jobs easier, work less hours or do what you like, you save and invest more...

Its a convenience mindset, most Americans see no issue with a $25 uber eats McDonalds order if its convenient, that would have been unthinkable 10 years ago

I am 25 and live in an expensive city in Switzerland, which is a little richer and a little more expensive than the US. I am relatively poor between 10-15 percentile, I am on disability insurance. I get around 2700 usd a month after taxes. Spend about 350 on health insurance, 250 on my all country public transport (that takes me everywhere) 1100 on rent and utilities and 1000 on food and miscellaneous consumption. I can afford a new laptop or phone when something breaks no problem. I never had to take on any debt and have about 30k saved from previous work. I pretty much lack nothing except maybe some more money for vacations and hope for the future. Now can you americans tell me please? Could you live with this kind of spending, without sacrificing your health or your mobility? I think a lot of "consumption" in the US is just ridiculous prices for the most basic things. Do you know anyone that only spends 250 usd a month for a car payment, insurance, repairs and gas? If you had public transport you might. If you're one of the lucky ones, what does public transportation cost?Remember my ticket is for the whole country, even the most remote place is reasonably well connected. I could spend as little as 150 or less for a regional pass.

It's because of neocolonialism, us need to give all their money to me, it is the only way to redemption

Furniture used to be hand made, albiet expensive. Even so, there was a pride of having furniture out live you and passing it down to your next generation of relatives/siblings. Now furniture can barely make it out the big box retailer store before falling apart because it's made out of crappy particle board and substandard glue. Ensh*titfication has a major role. It leads to an addiction to consumption.

And that's why trump is trying to weaponize this consumption based economy with tariffs and the whole world is afraid of it.

top 10% of income earners are responsible for 50% of all consumption in the USA, that's wild.

Spending what you earn might be good, but spending what you don't have is often pretty bad.

"How US overlords had the citizens spend their way into serfdom".

It's all about the credit markets. If you cut out the credit markets, none of this stuff including these astronomical prices would be possible.

Merica'

"constrained resources, like land, very expensive"
Then you should build tall apartment buildings.
"NOOO you can't build this, muh land value!"
"NOOO I don't wanna apartment, I wanna house!"

@10.47 literally only one of those was "essential" 😂 needs and wants ay!

Been a terrible consumer since January 2023 and I don’t plan on stopping.

Some of us are the opposite: we are so used to not buying stuff that we now have far more money than we need for basic living expenses, but we struggle to spend more because we enjoy saving and are used to being frugal.

No, not under current monetary system.

the real question is can we keep consuming, when we have no money? the next time the stock market crashes, the next time the housing market crashes, the rich will buy it all up, the concentration of wealth will get even greater... what is money worth when there's hundreds of millions of people who have negative dollars, and a few thousand people with all of the dollars?

consuming is good when everyone has money, when nobody has any debt. consumption is bad when everyone is in debt except a few big giant mega corporations and investment funds.

"The more i want, then the less im free.
When i see everything ive got.
Thats enough for me.
Its all i need."
Hilltop hoods - pyramid building

Huge thanks to the person who suggested Moonacy Protocol—it’s been a lifesaver

Most of it derives back to fiat currency and short time frames due to inflation

BAN STOCK BUYBACKS!!!

this sounds just like the business cycle when debt becomes to much things crash and then we restart. just saying we never seem to learn.

CONsume,.
CONvenience.
CONservative.

the only issue with "protect the rich" is... while they do spend more per person than any other wealth group, the other wealth groups are spending much higher percentages of their earnings (including the groups spending more than their earnings).

but hey as a Brit, what do I know...

All good they will all just refinance their house. Nothing bad ever came from that......

I just don’t understand Americans. Why go into debt to buy crap you don’t really need.

When I was younger, I only bought cheap shoes cuz I didnt have a lot money at any one point, went thru 5 pairs in one year once. Now I have more money, I bought $500 boots, haven't replaced them in 5 years. At that time, those shoes were about $50 each, $250 in shoes in one year. By this logic, my boots paid are overall cheaper, paid for themselves twice over. We consume so much cuz quality made products are expensive, my Whites boots are well made but in no way luxury. Then theres the idea of planned obsolesce.

lets see, 53% of my income is spent on rent, insurance and utilities. If I want to spend more than 47% of my income it would mean taking a loan, which only moves the issue into the future. Being financially responsible is bad I guess?

Great video! Always based in reality.
Your point regarding access to America for companies is very true in Australia. If consumer discretionary companies don’t have access to that golden America market they’re mid.
Cheers.

Can't afford a new car. But even if I could I wouldn't because vandalism is out of control in any downtown of any city /town

kind of hard to integrate an ad read into a video about our own comsummurism.

When an American has a hobby, its consumerism. Whether its eating out, purchasing entertainment, or travelling, its only hyper consumption when an American does it. Every other country gets a free pass lol.

As a Ghanaian, i am sure the market considers us to be terrible consumers, but we actually don't have a choice but to be terrible at it . 😅
So if they US has that much to be consuming in the first place, then i am sure they are doing something right..... or wrong, 🤷
I don't know haven't watched till the end yet 😅

A homeloan is the easiest way for a bank to create money now that consumerism is down. Private Banks rule the world and they have found the last lucrative scheme to manipulate the population, 'housing'. They want money to be digital because then they create it. Aka a loan - they don't have the money, it was created. This form of creation took off wildly in the 2000s and has become the norm. Houses aren't going up in value, they are the creation of wealth for the banks and debt for society. The bad part of this scenario is loans for businesses function better in how it circulates through society. I.e. it goes to salaries, buying parts, producing goods etc. Creating money into a house it goes nowhere for long periods. Therefore inflation worsens as there is more money, but it stays in housing. There is less money now to be made in consumerism and more money to be made in housing loans. We have created a time bomb.

We can scale up housing, and it's called high density development. Housing scarcity is artificial.

I wouldnt call buying a house or apartment consume if its for necessity. If its your 5th house for vacacion, yes. Its a bit hard to define that imho.

The world feels, especially since January, quiet Broken. Consumer goods is one way people can at least feel a little bit better.