The Story of Stuff

...and Bottled Water, Cosmetics, and Cap and Trade are all incredibly important videos. Watch them now.

Juicy Couture display at the Macy's in downtown Chicago.

"We're trashing the planet, we're trashing each other, and we're not even having fun."-Annie Leonard

To paraphrase Annie Leonard, the average American sees 3,000 advertisements each day that are essentially telling us what is wrong with us, but how we can be alright if we just buy their product. This. Works. And it's not only detrimental to our self-esteem; it's created an emotionally unhealthy society.

And make no mistake, this system is consciously designed for large corporations to maximize their profits: "Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns. The very meaning and significance of our lives today expressed in consumptive terms. The greater the pressures upon the individual to conform to safe and accepted social standards, the more does he tend to express his aspirations and his individuality in terms of what he wears, drives, eats- his home, his car, his pattern of food serving, his hobbies." (Victor Lebeau 1955.)