Consumption

Time-rather-than-stuff store

The third cell phone? Sixth scarf? Tenth perfume? Looking for a present?

Next time you are looking for a gift, go to the time-rather-than-stuff store instead of buying the same old boring things. You will find inspiration and something totally unique there: time spent together.

 

Why do we give things to the people we love most?

The energy and climate crises are directly related to our behavior as society. And, above all, to our behavior as individuals. Our consumption determines what is produced and how it is produced. Which raw materials are used. We buy a lot of things although we don't really need them. One quarter of food in Germany ends up in the garbage. One third of the clothes in our closets are never worn.

That's one side of the coin. The other side is time, which seems to be slipping away. Time that we don't have to meet friends, for example. Anybody who has read Eckart von Hirschhausen's book "Happiness rarely comes alone" knows that it's social contacts that make us happy, not consumption.

The fifth scarf, the tenth perfume. It sounds banal. But things we buy and then possess cost time, money, and resources. Traditionally, it gets even worse at Christmas. And we still think we're doing a favor to our loved ones when we give them stuff.

So why don't we kill two birds with one stone: give good friends time spent together. Give the world less consumption.

"Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness."

by John Ruskin

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