I would like to be able to achieve greater self-discipline in my own consumption, but this has nothing to do with any social good but purely what would be good for my family. Consumer products facilitate the use of leisure time, as well as exhaust such time. Fewer products might result in more time, but not necessarily time better spent. Of course, we would like consumption to reflect humane values, and in a market-based system the necessity of profits endangers such values. Note that this is a concern along numerous points of the political spectrum, including the right.
Markets are amoral.
They sell what people want, think they want, or are convinced they want, and often we decry the social and personal consequences of this process. There is a place for discussing how to regulate markets for the sake of promoting ethical, social values, but I don't think we get there by exhortations to buy less. Searching for Solutions Join the discussion. All letters to the editor are for publication and may be edited for length and clarity.