How do you make the choice of what is for the better good, to consume or conserve, once your basic needs are met? Consuming impacts our worlds resources and can lead to pollution at each step of the creation, distribution, and use cycles and yet conservation can deprive workers of economic benefits necessary for their survival. Do you even consciously make this decision? If so, how do you weigh it out?
I think that each person, each family, each community and each business has their own personal threshold for what constitutes "enough". But the reality is that each of us will be a consumer throughout our entire lives. I think there are some pretty basic things that each of us can do to reduce the excess in our lives and live by the "less is more" mindset. Here are some simple ideas:
Cut back on excess food consumption. Many of us - particularly in America - eat far more than we need to. There is an Okinawan cultural habit of calorie control called "hara hachi bu", which means eat only until you're 80% full.
Don't buy products with lots of packaging. This one is pretty simple...buy products that use less packaging, or find products that come in packaging that you can recycle.
Scale back impulse buying.* It doesn't make much sense to buy things you don't really need - think about it. A simple way to cut back impulse consumer purchases it to just avoid the "new and improved" marketing pitch. For example, why do I need a wireless bluetooth keyboard and computer mouse when my standard keyboard and trackball mouse work just fine =)?
It sounds simple, but less is more!
Both? I find it important to find balance, becuase we can't pretend we don't live in the modern world and require tools to do so. We also can't pretend that natural resources are unlimited and our choices have not impact on the people and the planet.
For example, most days i ride my bike to work, but to do that i had to buy a bike. I chose to buy a used bike but at some point that bike was manufactured with probably quite a bit of environmental damage. It also requires lights for riding at night, a helmet and clothing to keep me warm and dry.
Ooooooo. Good question. Not sure exactly how I can answer - only that I think most people who chose to conserve never think about how that very action might carry a potentially negative impact, just as a mindless consumer neglects (subconsciously, or consciously) to think of the negative impacts involved with their actions.
Thanks for posing the question...
We find that we have a lot of stuff at home, but we still need more. Now we are trying to create a balance between the two.
1. We buy more used goods
2. We donate or sell things we no longer need