In my German class, our last theme was on Werbung, or advertising. As per usual, we discussed the topic in relation to our current lives and those in our home countries. My teacher felt that we consume more now than ever and specifically mentioned buying clothes and then giving them away or discarding them the next year to be fashionable.I found that particularly humorous, as these three shirts, each more than 4 years old, awaited my returning from the US with new shirts to be discarded, although the color was washed out to a very noticeable extent, there were splotches of color loss, and two had (minor) holes. I am wearing a shirt today which has a hole minor enough that I will continue to wear it and, all in all, I shop for clothes only once a year (when visiting the US) and that shopping is primarily to replace clothing with noticeable holes or to buy for the children, who actively outgrow their clothes as well as physically wearing them out more quickly than the adults do.
Perhaps we are the anti-consumption family?
On the other hand, I sent 4 boxes of books back from the show (they were free! Although postage was not.) and I gratefully carried a hand-me-down computer from my mom back as well (does it count as consumption when it's a hand-me-down? I think not. And it replaces my blown up and recycled prior Dell computer.).
