A friend said to me, “The only excess a Christian should have is an excess of love.” If that is the only line of this blog you read, than that is all you need. Consumerism is funny, in some forms it isn’t all bad, but in a lot of forms it is just down right awful. How can consumerism be good you ask? Well let me tell you.
We live in a world the essentially runs on things being bought. From farmers to Microsoft they are all dependent on you, me and everyone else buying stuff. So in it’s truest sense buying things helps people live and put food on the table. Buying stuff isn’t all bad. Buy carrots from the farmer so he can get the essentials for his family. Buy an iPhone from Apple and that money goes to pay it’s thousands of employees. It is the truth of how our economy works. However, the problem comes as a result of the greed inherent in the system. Greed fuels us to buy when we don’t need to, or to replace things long before they need replacing. If we have money to spend we will spend it, and in fact we spend more than we have. The average Canadian has $25,594 in non-mortgage debt (Source).
But this isn’t a financial blog, I am no better than that above number. I am the last person who should be giving advice. There are a tonne of resources out there for debt consolidation, I hope you find one useful for you if you need it.
No this is a blog about buying crap.
Consumerism is idolatry at it’s finest. That which you sacrifice for you worship. We lay down a lot at the altar of stuff. I admit I am not very good at battling this in my life, I am the pot, you are the kettle. We purchase things to make ourselves feel good, to make others feel good, to be the best, to show off, to be on top of the latest icon, for a million reasons. And there is nothing wrong with owning things, it is what you do with them, and how they shape you that matters. I have a car, it is my car, but I don’t want to ever be so possessive of it. I often volunteer to drive people places, or on occasion lent it to friends in need of a car for a day. My phone is useful for making calls, but it is also useful for letting youth at church call their parents when they need to. The point is, in the New Testament we are told the church came together and had all things in common, and there was no need among them. If you are a member of a community of believers, I believe you need to begin to let go of what you own, and see it as a tool, or an object useful for the Kingdom.
There is another aspect of consumerism that is becoming more and more apparent these days. That is the source of our stuff. I listened to a tremendous podcast from This American Life that I recommend everyone listen too. It was about Foxconn, the technology factory in China that Apple uses. It has made news recently partly because of this podcast, and partly because Apple just released their annual report on their overseas factories. Apple was definitely reacting to the backlash against them. And that’s good, they have set in motion some good practices. The truth is those most tech companies use this factory, and chances are whatever device you’re reading this on some part of it passed through Foxconn. But this podcast brought to light the fact that working conditions even in these so-called state of the art factories is deplorable. They work on average 12 – 16 hour days, and there have been unsubstantiated reports of people being fired for getting sick or injured on the job. This is not to harp on Apple, they just happen to be taking a lot of the criticism lately, it is a global problem. We live in an age of information when we can find out where our stuff comes from, and try to help make things better for workers around the world. But here is the rub of the issue. Simply not buying their product doesn’t help. In a way creating a global community in which we manufacture, and import and export isn’t terrible. At its most base form the global community is just an exchange of goods and services. Like you would have found in an ancient marketplace. But our Western world wants and wants and exploits the rest of the world to get what it wants. I feel we can’t keep ignoring this problem, and it makes my heart glad to see businesses champion product made for fair wages, or traded at fair value. I will buy those, even if they have a premium, because it is something that helps to push forward the agenda of treating everyone as equals, as human beings. God created us all in his image and we are all brothers and sisters of his creation. Nothing makes me more special than you, so why do I deserve the iPhone that cost you your hand?
Church let’s begin to be an example for the world of basic human dignity and ethics. Let’s be an example of living within, or below our means. Let’s not be another statistic, but rather begin to show the world that we can share, love, and have all things in common.
Here is the American Fair Trade website http://fairtradeusa.org/ a useful tool for evaluating your purchases.
Feel free to leave comments, or provide personal feedback to: james.alan.brooks@gmail.com
The irony is that as consumers we always seek the best ‘deals’ so we can save money. $25000 in debt (with interest on top of that) later and how’s that working for us? All those “deals” add up.