Try to stop buying things you dont need. Capitalism is a fundamentaly consumerist system... cut out the consumption and it will inevitably fall apart. Think about whether you actually need the things your about to purchase, if everybody did this social dictators wouldnt know what the hell to do. Lets mess things up abit yes?
I don't think enough people would go through with that to make an impact, how materialistic is society? And damnit I want cute things, sorry! I'm extremely frugal with my money though too so I definitely think it over about 100 times and get it the cheapest way I can ha so maybe that helps some.
I am a #1 A+ thrift store shopper. We don't have good dumpsters here in AZ or I would be all over them. I used to dumpster dive in Montana.
I understand your point though I wonder what kind of society we would have without consumerism and popular culture - maybe a dictatoriship, or a religious state as the establishment will always want to control the masses in someway.
It's difficult to implement this across the board as others have said and I wonder if the impact would be muddled or rationalized by the powers that be (the rethugican party in power) to something partisan or worse yet, to their advantage. Having said that, I agree with the original poster, even though there's always a list of "stuff" we might want. Maybe we need to alter this focus to "brand" or "hyped" versions of products as well as those made by and/or (in the case of Wal-mart) sold by, companies that we KNOW have done things either hostile to local people, the environment etc... My spouse and I have done the usual, swearing off Walmart, and buying Fairtrade international items (as well as indie shop items) whenever possible. And oh yeah, all of our computers are Apples!
i agfree by supporting local shops, artisans, thrift stores, and the like we are not helping to throw money into the corporate giants and their less then noble practices. i thrift shop whenever possible and support the local food co-op. these are just my suggestions.
