Top products from r/Anticonsumption

We found 23 product mentions on r/Anticonsumption. We ranked the 109 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Top comments that mention products on r/Anticonsumption:

u/whichever · 1 pointr/Anticonsumption

I just finished The Impulse Society, it's a good read but not all that related. At the moment I can't think of any particular books, I just kind of wing it as a hobby that's good to the body and to the environment! I still buy plenty of stuff I shouldn't, but I'm getting better all the time. And no, Alaska looks beautiful but thankfully I don't live that far north :)

u/untaken-username · 54 pointsr/Anticonsumption

More to your point, there's a pretty good book (that's relatively balanced) that I read many moons ago that's worth reading for anyone interested in WalMart's practices:

> The WalMart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and HowIt's Transforming the American Economy

> https://www.amazon.com/Wal-Mart-Effect-Powerful-Works-Transforming/dp/0143038788

The book talks about the things you highlight here. It also looks at how it puts the screws to vendors (basically it opens great opportunities for them to reach much wider audiences, but makes them go to rock bottom pricing, which means they must sacrifice quality... many vendors will create WalMart specific versions of their products that are more cheaply manufactured so that they can meet WalMart's stringent low price demands).

It also looks at the good side of WalMart's practices. Like how they are so maniacal about lowering prices that they've reduced packaging down to the bare minimum, thereby generating less landfill trash, requiring less fuel to transport, etc.

u/ehrensw · 1 pointr/Anticonsumption

Capitalism requires exploitation.
Successful capitalism requires consumers.
Consumerism is fetishistic.
Fetishism does not necessarily follow from consumers, and so ultimately no. Capitalism does not require fetishistic consumers.
It is, in demonstrable examples, the inevitable result. In history, capitalism always leads to fetishistic consumers.

Capitalism, however, does require that some people receive less than the value of their labor. Also, that some people who have capital receive more than the worth of their labor. This is the exchange for the risk they take with their capital.

Again, it is extremism that leads to unsustainable levels of exploitation. Though extremism is not necessary. It is, in demonstrable examples, the inevitable result.

Capitalism is in practice then, the replacement of serfs tied to the land with wage slaves. They are free to quit any given job, but not to quit the social strata. Postindustrial Peasants was a really interesting monograph that digs into this issue with lots of excellent research.


u/schick00 · 2 pointsr/Anticonsumption

I’m not sure the economy dying is really what many people want. Many of us agree that the current mass consumption based economy is not healthy or sustainable. If you are really interested I can suggest a couple books that I found interesting.

The is good economics book on this topic.
Small is Beatiful

Some of look to more simple living you find in books like The Plain Reader: Essays on Making a Simple Life or even Walden

u/thegumptiontrap · 6 pointsr/Anticonsumption

It massively depends on the specific book you're reading. You don't read the classics and return them to the library. With something like Crime and Punishment, or Faust, or Moby Dick, or anything on this list, you need to be able to mark up the book with notes during a first read through, so that you're better able to absorb and understand and critique the book during the second, longer reading. (A great book on reading: https://www.amazon.com/Well-Trained-Mind-Classical-Education-Fourth/dp/0393253627/ref=dp_ob_title_bk )

If you're reading for pleasure, or if the subject matter isn't as complex as Moby Dick, the library is fine. And, in that case, you're completely correct. I love Le Carre, but I can't imagine buying one of his books. The same goes for cook books--I take them out from the library, copy the recipes I like, and bring them back.

I think that you should only buy a book if you're definitely going to read it and mark it up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World

u/tumba11108 · 8 pointsr/Anticonsumption

Paul Robert's book, "The Impulse Society: America in the Age of Instant Gratification," is in fact a helpful book for those interested in the contemporary relationship between our self-understanding and identity and the act of purchasing stuff. I recommend it.

non-affiliate Amazon link

u/mrboodaddy · 2 pointsr/Anticonsumption

Thanks. Yeah I think they both definitely complement each other, but the "what can I bring forth" mindset really resonates with me moreso.

It is pretty aligned with the Buddhist concept of "genuine happiness," that Alan Wallace really discusses in his work and teachings:

http://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Happiness-Meditation-Path-Fulfillment/dp/047146984X

u/T-Wrox · 1 pointr/Anticonsumption

Jeff Rubin - "Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller" - I read this book a few years ago, and it is an excellent look into how our world will change once the easy-to-get-at oil is gone. I highly recommend reading it.

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/Anticonsumption

Brondell Bidet - Thinline Dual Nozzle SimpleSpa SS-250 | Fresh Water Spray |Non-Electric | Bidet Toilet Attachment in White | SafeCore Internal Valve | Nozzle Guard | Easy to Install https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KX9J9DQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_fH5jDbV2P55GN


I have used this one since jan. It has a duel spray which i recomend if a women is using.

u/RenoFahringer · 6 pointsr/Anticonsumption

“Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things” is a book I am currently enjoying that covers these topics. The anti-corporation sentiment is unrealistic, though, as large companies are what develop and set in place sustainable energy via solar, wind, etc. and are able to invest in recycling programs to reuse plastics, etc. in the first place—but that’s my only qualm about the book so far. Here’s an Amazon link.
https://www.amazon.com/Cradle-Remaking-Way-Make-Things/dp/0865475873/ref=nodl_

u/dalbic · 2 pointsr/Anticonsumption

The same view is expressed in Charles Wheelan's book Naked Economics.

Also, Paul Krugman's In Praise of Cheap Labour (mit.edu) is worth reading.

u/happyFelix · 12 pointsr/Anticonsumption

Sure, if we all stopped consuming 50% of what's being produced, this would make half the production obsolete. The twist in thinking is that this is a good thing and not a bad one as the growth imperative would suggest.

I see the way out through going back to more self-sufficiency. The alternative to a consumer society is a society of mostly self-sufficient people. This is the basis of freedom from economic pressures as it decouples your well-being from the ups and downs of the market economy. Then, how would you get such economically free people back into wage-slavery? In fact, this was the situation prior to the industrial revolution. There's a nice book on the subject of how initially economically independent farmers were systematically robbed of their means of self-sufficiency to drive them into the factories, basically the ironically very forced birth of the "free" market capitalism. There was also a recent article posted about the book.

So basically it is not that we simply stop consuming and then how do we get our food? Instead we go back to more self-sufficiency and no longer require neither wages nor the products of wage-labor. This way, each person can individually step out of the vicious circle that is our current economic system.

For more detail on how to do this - practically, you may want to read "Possum Living", "Early retirement extreme" or "How to live without a salary".

More mainstream are books like "Your money or your life" or "Work less, play more."

u/mrrorschach · 3 pointsr/Anticonsumption

Critical Pedagogies of Consumption: Living and Learning in the Shadow of the "Shopocalypse" (Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education)

Amazon Link


A good collection of papers on different topics concerning hyper-consumption. On the light side of academic writing and pretty broad in focus, so no previous experience in the field is necessary

u/pretendcontender · 1 pointr/Anticonsumption

A book plug (is that frowned upon in this subreddit?), but the intro to Matthew Crawford's The World Beyond Your Head explores this question and answers it in the affirmative. Here's an article in the NYT that is basically an adaption of the same introduction to the book. Currently reading it, about half way through. I like it, so far.

u/raptureRunsOnDunkin · 2 pointsr/Anticonsumption

As relates to Mr. Perelman's economic and political leanings, how can the paperback copy of his 17 year of book be $30, the hardcover OVER $100?

u/dataflux · 11 pointsr/Anticonsumption

There's a bigger issue underlying it which few people grasp, and most are probably guilty of. Half of the nerchandise is targeted at adults (like the SW makeup line for example). There doesn't seem to be a name for it, you could call it youth culture, perpetual adolescence, arrested development. People in their 20s, 30s obsessed with their childhood and refusing to grow the fuck up. It's creepy. Star wars, cartoons like family guy, video games, comics, useless gadgets, 80s retro bullshit, crossfit, grown ass adults making blanket forts on tumblr, social media in general, nerd culture. Reddit is overflowing with it. There's a few books written about it. The advertising industry pushes it because childish minds are the perfect target. They dont want mature rational consumers. Youth has been an idealized by the media for a while, probably the 60s, but it seems like in the last decade they have pushed the idealized age from 21 back to 12.

u/noelabelle · 4 pointsr/Anticonsumption

Fun fact: A lot of the $300 - $500K houses out west of Denver/Arvada are built near the former Rocky Flats facility, which processed Plutonium pits and stored radioactive waste outside in containment ponds and barrels on the premises. Leaky Leaky.

The housing builder corporations were able to get an exemption of the mention of this historic facility nearby (It's now a Wildlife Refuge) from their housing disclosures. So many of the people moving into those new ready to buy template built "starter homes" don't even know what used to be there. (And what is still there - Plutonium has a half life of 24,100 years) It's a deceitful and dangerous practice to forgo this potentially radioactive disclosure.

I have to wonder - What is potential cancer worth to someone now, or over their lifetime? Is it worth a new house, at a fair market price, with spectacular mountain views, easy highway access, all the modern amenities, and nearby outdoor recreation and family picnics at the wildlife refuge? They can't think about the opportunity cost if they don't know all the pros and cons.

I read this book, Full Body Burden about Rocky Flats and that is where I source the above claims.

u/anriana · 0 pointsr/Anticonsumption

Chronic illnesses are increasingly problems in "small simple villages" as is diabetes, excessive fats, etc. Coca-Cola is everywhere in the world. Cancer is a multifactorial illness and caused by more than just toxic/synthetic stuffs (AND developing countries have high rates of exposure to toxic chemicals anyways).

Here is a really good book about the absolute horrors of experiencing cancer in a developing country: http://www.amazon.com/Improvising-Medicine-Oncology-Emerging-Epidemic/dp/0822353423. There are no advanced treatments. There are almost no oncologists and almost no medicine. Treatment and pain meds are rationed out to the youngest patients. Cancer is not diagnosed as often in low-income countries (mostly due to much lower average life spans and to a lack of screening for the disease), but it exists and it is awful for the people who experience it.

Secondly, please look at the etiologies of maternal mortality. This is a serious issue and cannot be solved in basic clinics at low cost. Women die in childbirth because they get married and impregnated at age 13, because they live in communities that don't allow women to seek medical treatment, because they get no prenatal care, because their genitalia has been mutilated, because they start hemorrhaging and live 5 hours from a hospital, because they need a c-section and live in a country with zero operating theatres, etc, etc.

Further, there are very few people in developing countries who can live by just gathering food for a few hours a day. Agriculture is a labor-intensive process. Odds are the typical person in this situation wouldn't be slaving 50 hrs/week -- they'd be slaving away for more.

Look, I love this story, and I love the overall message, but the point is not that people in developing countries have an idyllic life free from the horrors of modern development. That philosophy does a disservice to the very real struggles that billions of people experience.