Brainwashing Commercials and Consumerism

Our modern society is fascinating. You've never seen so many things to buy and so many things to sell, and how are we supposed to react to so much hype?

You can find all kinds of products with all kind of prices. It has never been so many offers, so many possibilities and so many temptations to go to the bank and borrow money.

It is believed that one of the causes of the problems in young people, who are demonstrating destructive rage, is because of ads and commercials. Now, if they are constantly flooded with slogans, images, posters, commercials and whatnot, how will they react?

The first thing they want when they get to work and get money is to buy all these objects: they too want to consume and possess things.

That works very well that brainwashing publicity, eh? Because they want to replace our need of belonging to a group, or a tribe as Set Godin would say, with the feeling of “belonging” to a brand, to push us more and more into consumerism.
And we all want our part, but what does that part mean for us? To work more to earn more to spend more?

Image courtesy of [renjith krishnan] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The other day I heard a conversation between two women:
"Ah, this Saturday I went to this and that shop and you should see how I "burned" my credit card with all the purchases I made,"
- And the other woman replied,
"Ah, that is a good thing to do from time to time! "

Consumerism is the worst drug in our society. It's like eating when you are not hungry for fear of not having enough later.

If you become a victim of this kind of brainwashing situation you will have far fewer opportunities to reach your financial goals and moreover your financial freedom.

If you become a victim of commercials and consumerism you will not pay your debts but increase your debts.

You will not have savings projects nor buy financial assets to get passive income or whatever, because you will fall to the temptations that materialism sets in your way.

I have lots of debts and I am a victim of consumerism, what I can do?

Turn off your tv. Just to see what happens for awhile. Watch yourself and watch the others, you will be better off.

The cause of all this is only in our minds and the solution is linked to your ability to separate the powerful speech of commercials from your real life.

The next most important thing is to feed your mind with good things and turning the tv off is  a good start.

Start appreciating what you already have and then make inventory to see how far your lifestyle is linked to consumerism.

The difference between need and desire

Learn to differentiate between need and desire, many people confuse these two, and the more confused they are the more financial mistakes they make. We can say that need is all that is vital for you: food, shelter, clothes (and I'm not talking about dressing in Prada clothes unless you can afford it, of course), the rest is in the domain of desire .

The secret to stop being a victim of consumerism is to find a good balance between what you need and what you desire, if you can spend without counting because you have a cash reserve or savings, why not buy it if you can not afford it?
But if you have to ask for money to the bank to spend on these things, these credits are going to take you straight on the road to poverty.

And you, are you a victim of consumerism?