Consume, Consume, Consume...

When I moved out of my parents house, I moved into a rental house with 3 other guys. I was a senior in college. Two of the guys had 4-year degrees, one of them was pursuing his CPA while the other had just entered law school. The fourth guy was in a junior college. Three of us, including myself, had jobs while the law student was funded by his parents. You can imagine the environment. Four frugal college guys sharing a house. The sort of situation sitcoms are based on.

We had a mantra that went "consume, consume, consume". It was used to recognize any of the many compelling motivations in our society to get more stuff. To live more lavishly. To indulge ourselves. You get the picture.

The scene must have been comical, seeing 2, 3 or all 4 of us chanting "consoooom, consoooom, consooooooom...." Repeatedly.

I remember when the CPA student and his girlfriend took all of the groceries from one of our shopping trips (we shared meal expenses at home) and spread the contents on the table. They figured out how much the food would have cost if we bought it bulk and showed that about a third of what we were spending was for the packaging and convenience factor. None of it was TV dinners or what someone might consider convenience foods ... so, much of it was just paying for wrappers and fancy labels. But without them, we wouldn't have bought it.

We often talked about our capitalist corporate system. To survive, a company has to grow. There seems to be no such thing as a stable company, it is either get bigger or die. That means selling more which means getting people to buy more. Profit is king! As students, we understood it well. Sales and marketing from every side. Packaging and appeal is important, even if it is wasteful.

Then there is the allure to spend more than you have. Credit... Ooooh! How far over the edge is "living beyond your means"? Where is that edge, exactly? Credit is good, until it becomes bad. Deferred self gratification is only good when it is someone else's gratification and not yours. Go ahead, get yours today!

Is it better to indulge ourselves (insert consume mantra here) and live like a king or queen while we can? Or to be responsible? It sure seems those irresponsible kings and queens often get the better deal. Or often that indulgent behavior is rewarded.