ENGL 1102/Shein
October 9, 2011
Too consumed by stuff?
Consumerism is at an all time high! People allow commercials, ads and peers to talk them into thinking that they need the newest or best thing out there. I am sure a lot of these people even strive to have more than the people they know so hopefully we can look better than them. Some people are so desperate to have more than the next that they may even go into debt to have it. Parents need to be less materialistic and teach their children how to enjoy life without having to have a lot of stuff that is just going to be wasted and thrown in the trash shortly after purchase. They also need to teach them that true happiness is not about how much stuff you may have, but it is about spending time with family and having love and joy in your life.
I really enjoy the story “The Buck Shops Here” by Jack Hitt mainly because it shows you how you can buy things for cheap and be proud of it. I have always loved to shop at Dollar stores because everything in there is only a dollar and there are so many different items to choose from. A lot of people think that if it is only a dollar than it cannot be good quality stuff, but there are a lot of the good quality products. Hitt says “I found four AA batteries for my tape recorder for a dollar ($5.49 when I spotted them the next day at RadioShack), and dish towels that might have sold for $5 elsewhere were just a buck” (1). I know that a lot of people are concerned with others knowing that they bought something for a dollar, but if you really think about it when was the last time you were at someone’s house and saw something there and thought wow that looks cheap. Well if you are anything like me or most people you would never be able to tell
S.Miller 2
how much they bought something for or if they may have bought it on sale. The reason that the dollar stores are able to keep their items at a dollar is because stores like “RadioShack pays for the high rent,...