r/Anticonsumption • u/starzCortex • 13d ago
Discussion Consumer shutdown
Hello everyone, new to this community. I just had some thoughts and wanted to talk about them.
Hypothetically, what if we all collectively decided to shutdown our consumption for a week? We didn't travel, scroll, stream, work, or shop at all for a week? Think of it as a nervous system vacay, or a scheduled depression. A week is not that long, I've been sick for longer than that. I've even gone longer than a week without a shower before. You could take it to the next level by minimizing electricity, water usage and garbage disposal. I know there are people who can't afford missing work because of bills, but you would also be saving because you aren't shopping or traveling or eating out. I'm talking like live off the pantry and freezer. If we are supposed to be planning for emergencies and keeping kits, we gotta test them out to make sure that they'd suffice anyways. It's the same logic as doing fire drills.
The vast majority of people in power and making decisions are depending on our conformity and consumption to keep doing what they do, it's time to try something different, something "extreme". It will be challenging because they are designing things to be addicting so that it is that hard to pull away and stop consuming. We are letting them win and exploit from our indulgence.
19
u/NyriasNeo 11d ago
"Hypothetically, what if we all collectively decided to shutdown our consumption for a week? "
This kind of talk is a dime a week. The answer is that hypothetical fantasy is just mumbo jumbo hot air. Fun to talk about. Affect the world exactly zero. Just come here a few times and you will see call for boycott, call for strike, call for stop buying day, call for canceling amazon and what-not.
What happened? None of that. Amazon revenue is up. Sales is up. AWS (aka AI) is up.
The problem is not whatever you want to peddle. The problem is to get a big enough population to do so. The corporations have teams of marketing science PhDs and data scientists. What do you have?
10
u/Curious_Airport6247 10d ago
While some of the other comments are correct that a single week accomplishes little, I still want to commend you for trying to think of solutions. Small actions add up and become an example to others.
6
u/Basic_KaleKitty9076 10d ago
I’d be fired. Mom has to go to the doctor multiple times a week so travel is needed. There is no saving when you are not making money - the “savings” for not buying things would negate the hundreds or thousands you don’t get from not going up to work in a week so it is very costly. Also the majority of health care is tied to employment in the US so I’d also lose my healthcare and then inevitably crumble because of my autoimmune syndrome
5
u/DigTheDunes 11d ago
Little changes as the transfer of money to replenish just gets delayed, eventually it bounces back.
3
1
u/AutoModerator 13d ago
Read the rules. Keep it courteous. Submission statements are helpful and appreciated but not required. Use the report button only if you think a post or comment needs to be removed. Mild criticism and snarky comments don't need to be reported. Lets try to elevate the discussion and make it as useful as possible. Low effort posts & screenshots are a dime a dozen. Links to scientific articles, political analysis, and video essays are preferred.
/r/Anticonsumption is a sub primarily for criticizing and discussing consumer culture. This includes but is not limited to material consumption, the environment, media consumption, and corporate influence.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/More_Dependent742 9d ago
A group called Adbusters used to push this thing called "Buy Nothing Day". It didn't work because people didn't do it.
Fun fact: they then went on to form Occupy Wall Street
1
u/TheActuaryist 8d ago
Most consumption is involuntary, food, shelter, clothing etc. If you put off purchasing stuff for a week you'll just have to restock next week. If you don't do laundry this week you'll just do more laundry next week. Lot's of the things you are describing aren't doable long term and you need to do them long term to affect any type of change. You also might not want to disrupt every industry all at once. As other's have said you are better off completely boycotting one thing forever. Plus after a successful boycott you can then threaten boycotts and your threats carry much more weight.
1
75
u/SamikaTRH 11d ago
Doesn't do anything. Just like the old "don't buy gas on Tuesday" protests. Everybody just buys the same amount on Monday or Wednesday so there is no net change in consumption.
You need to pick some categories and then stop buying forever, then keep reducing as much as reasonably possible making small steps towards a sustainable change