So, is this culture?

There must be more to it, right? Or is consumption all we have left? It sure seems that way to me. Of course, I’m on the inside looking at this problem because I help build brands. Yet I don’t think it’s the marketing that’s the problem. It’s the unchecked consumption. I just read a book that shared some shocking insights regarding consumer tendencies.

For example, did you know that the Self-Storage business has become a $17 billion annual industry? That’s larger that the motion picture business. Which means that in a nation of couch potatoes, the only thing we like more than movies is hoarding stuff like little symbol using squirrels.

Or, here’s something else: We spend more on trash bags than ninety other countries spend on everything. (Via A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. Pink was citing a March, 2003 Polly LaBarre article from Fast Company magazine.)

So we buy and buy and store and store and when we can’t store stuff, we throw stuff away, lots of it, which creates more room to buy even more stuff.

What is that all about?