Very well-written comment you’ve contributed!

We are physical beings that crave sensation. That has been sold to us as needing new things, and feeling empty without it. But I’m happiest sitting in the sunshine, or taking pictures, or spending time with my family. By putting a little time and attention into the “little stuff”, it becomes a lot more fulfilling than a new toy.

Besides – wanting is often more experiencing a lack. By fulfilling that perceived lack, we feel better – until the next perceived lack shows up. And the media are experts at showing us newly-minted lack.

I’d think that people getting past their ‘wants’ would be good. There would be more money to spend on things that were more important to them, phasing out whole industries, and making others much larger. There’s still the same creative spark, the same energy. We’d just find more satisfying directions for it.

Maybe more charity, and less inequality? Maybe shorter work hours, and more time spent with friends and family? Careful, well-built, beautiful things instead of MORE things.

I’ve been thinking about what you said.

1) Congratulations on lifting yourself above the zone of indulgence, into the zone of wisdom!

2) Desire is very human, yet going for lifelong experiences and memories is still far more lasting and enduring, than hopping from one fashionable material good to another trend-of-the-moment.

What I have noticed about really happy people, is they are deeply satisfied by even ‘small’ things in life.

At the same time, I also had to watch, as some really unhappy people constantly hungered for more, without ever achieving true satisfaction.

It makes me sad to witness this, especially when they happen to be people close to me.

I agree. I went to a conference that was located next to a ritzy shopping area, and I indulged in a couple of things, but felt a little bad about it later. When I told a coworker that I probably overspent, her reaction was, “No, good for you! You deserve to have it.” She also says she’s accepted that she and her husband will never get out of debt. Ouch.

I’m making serious progress, though. Several HUGE boxes of stuff are going to Goodwill today, and a big box of books is going to Half Price. And it’s only the beginning. I’m tired of “stuff.” I want things like vacations, memories with family and friends, and new experiences, and the “stuff” is just weighing me down.

It seems like as a whole, we’re just bored, or looking for what’s next. I have a friend who does this constantly. She pressured her now-husband into marriage, talking about it all of the time. After the newness wore off, it was time to have a baby. Her house bored her after a year, and she was devastated when they lost out on a deal for a home they couldn’t have afforded anyway. She liked my car, so she went and bought one similar (although, because mine was 1.5 years old, my payments were half of what she paid for hers new). She thinks if she goes shopping and doesn’t buy something, she’s “the poor one” in the group. We’re not very close anymore because we just don’t have a lot in common.

– Epicurus

and from Aleks: Consumer debt growth has been driving the economy in recent years. Obviously that is unsustainable over the long term, so what happens when people stop borrowing to buy stuff–not because they change their outlook, but because nobody will lend them any more money? In my opinion, this is something we’re going to find out. I think the negative effects are going to be spread out over everyone, including people who already live below their means.
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Our powerfully consumerist culture INVENTS wants. To exist at all, the economic structure we’ve built has to convince us that we want a lot of stuff that we don’t need and that, once we get past the all-pervasive hype urging us to buy buy buy, we realize we don’t want.

Problem is, as Aleks points out, our whole economy is built on this impetus. We have a president who for better or worse recognized that when he told us the patriotic response to 9/11 was to go to the mall and spend money.

When the impetus to spend goes away, either because most people can no longer afford to buy on whim or because they smarten up and make a free choice to quit filling their lives with junk and unnecessary services, the engine that drives our economy will sputter to a stop.

Uhm…is that an engine knock I hear right now?

For me I totally want a PlayStation3, but my other wants; my own house, promotion at work etc take much higher place. So I push for those that I really want and wait on the silly wants, I would much rather have an extra $600 in my 401k than a PS3.

When the time and the price is right I’ll get one.

1) I agree that ‘wants’ have become too bloated.
I believe that wanting new experiences and meaningful memories remains a basic human need.
Unfortunately, consumerism has bloated this basic need artificially and abnormally.
So people today spend in excesses.
They end up possessing too much material stuff.

2) There was a time when my country, struggling to develop itself economically, was a nation of super-savers.
Today, this society is filled with super-spenders, similarly like yours.
It’s become easy to blame Westernisation for all that blatant squandering.
Actually, I suspect many people surrendered and sold off their right to natural happiness.

3) I’ve always been a bookworm, but have been unable to buy many physical books for years now, although I can easily afford to.
There’s just too much fabulous free content on the Web!
That’s why in a recent post on my own blog, I called for supporting digital content over print media.

4) Our late mother was the model super-consumer.
Recently, 2 years after her unfortunate passing, we finally completed the struggle to dispose of her now-suddenly-useless possessions.
Thank goodness it was not more than over 100 large black trash bags of clothes, shoes, handbags, books, appliances etc. … and truckloads of bulky movables to dispose.
All this in the space of a single public apartment.
None of us had the time, energy or means to eBay off the lot, or transport it to charity.

5) My 2-cents question to add to this discussion:

What do you carry off with you when you die?

6) As individuals, let’s condense our lives as we deem fit.
The larger society and economy will adjust to accommodate our collective efforts.
Always has been that way.

Sure, certain material needs aren’t “necessary”, but for some people, they can be.

If they can afford it for example, an writer might want a moleskin notebook or a new laptop instead of a plain paper or an old computer-because treating themselves to what they really want is treating oneself well. Thus, they might be inspired.. If they can afford it, these things might make them work better then

They might not be able to afford it, and they certainly could make it work with the basics and work well or better. They can still be inspired.

Money or no money, lots of things can inspire: Non-material or Material, anything!

If that person can rightly justify their expense …who is anyone else to judge their spend their wants or needs, and spending habits.

Make sure that whatever you feel, stuff or no stuff; you are really happy. Don’t not acquire something because you feel bad for spending ANYTHING. If really it would make your life better, happier, more efficient (deep down you will know this), buy it. If it won’t do a thing, don’t.

If someone says they need/want peace and quiet and privacy, are those wants or needs?

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=220

I’ve been trying to think of the ideas here in terms of Maslow’s heirarchy of needs (Physiological; Safety; Love/belonging; Esteem; Self-actualization)… maybe “wants” are things that we buy in order to try to fulfill some of the higher needs. It feels unsatisfying because once the lustre of the purchase wears off the underlying need is still there and we must buy again.

For example, buying certain clothes in order to belong to a peer group. If a person has an underlying need for belonging but is trying to fill that hole with a superficial purchase (a “want” item) it won’t give lasting satisfaction.

so maybe a “want” is a short-term fix for a need …

great blog btw!

Would we all have jobs?”

A more immediate concern is what will happen if we all start living below our means. Consumer debt growth has been driving the economy in recent years. Obviously that is unsustainable over the long term, so what happens when people stop borrowing to buy stuff–not because they change their outlook, but because nobody will lend them any more money? In my opinion, this is something we’re going to find out. I think the negative effects are going to be spread out over everyone, including people who already live below their means.

Isn’t that what Buddha describes as Nirvana?

For example: I spent my first year of college only reading text books and assigned things. I got severely depressed and unhappy and couldn’t figure why or how to help myself. One night I found an 800 page fiction novel I’d bought years ago and hadn’t read yet that was just sitting among the books on my shelves. I curled up, spent all night and half the next day reading it. I felt tons better.

For me certain things that might be a ‘want’ for others are closer to a need. Books and games are these sorts of things. The mental stability and stimulus I get out of them combined with the social factor of gaming with my friends (I don’t know if anything beats the camaraderie of avoiding a dungeon full of traps to slay a dragon) is worth a lot to me. Health (emotional, physical, and mental) isn’t a want.

I think putting things into two categories makes it a little oversimplified. There are basic needs like food and shelter. Then there are other needs, which while being less life-threatening in an immediate sense, when done away with due to dire necessity can have long lasting and horrible effects on the wellbeing of a person. For me these are things such as companionship, personal growth, and physical/mental health. So called “stuff” often comes hand in hand with these things. The key, as always, is balance.
True “wants” for me are things like candy, going out to the movies, a hybrid car (I can dream), a house of my own etc…

Also, if people really stopped desiring anything, we’d never see any more great literature. All stories at the core have to do with either/both wanting and losing, desire and death. If we stopped wanting anything, where would be the hope? The drive for improvement? I think the answer is less, not stopping.

(also, since when did wanting something become synonymous with spending money?)

Everyone seems to think that we’ll go into an economic depression the moment we step off the consumerism treadmill. That may be true in the short term but the economy will adjust and we’d just end up downscaling.

But I do think that in U.S. culture, we’ve been taught to indulge our wants.

I don’t see anything intrinsically wrong with or dirty about wanting something.

Wanting something doesn’t mean you can’t be happy, joyful, and responsible in the present. In fact the “utopia” that one person mentioned (having to do with meeting your needs and then not striving for anything) sounds like hell if you think about it for three seconds.

I tend to believe that even if all the stuff to want was taken away, their place would be filled with other, more meaningful wants. I think one of the first steps in living a frugal lifestyle is the realization that there are so many better things in life to want than stuff.

What would happen if I didn’t buy this?

I have the same problem at gift receiving occasions. I just don’t need much of anything and want almost nothing. It’s not that I already have a lot of stuff, it’s that I don’t WANT a lot of stuff.

Electronic gadgets and video game stuff is of no interest to me.

I don’t collect anything anymore.

I own a pretty bare bones computer and upgrades are few and far between and always on the cheap.

I DO enjoy cooking but I already have most of what I want for the kitchen, everything that space allows for at any rate.

I tend to buy durable clothes and keep them forever.

This past Christmas I actually ASKED for socks and underwear. It’s all I really needed.