<p>I do not think China will be the next world leading power unless they fix their patent laws, fight corruption, tighten up environmental regulations and begin observing basic human rights.</p>
<p>Sometimes, it’s just too hard to let some stuff go! This year alone I lost some stuff. My favorite coffee cup suddenly cracked from the heat of my coffee. I had this coffee cup for 24 yrs. I acquired it in Banff, Canada. It was a momento. It was a reminder of when I skied with the Italian women’s ski team prior to the Olympics. I lost my favorite work out B-ball shirt. I had this T-shirt since college when I played pick-up B-ball games with Buck Williams and Renaldo Nehimiah. There’s just some stuff you just can’t let go! It’s funny how we place importance on some stuff!</p>
<p>I don’t care much for WalMart shopping but not for moral issues. It is just an unpleasant shopping experience in general. There is a fairly new one south of me that is a little better than the other one near where I usually shop. I go in there to buy vitamin water because you can’t beat the price…
There is Chinese crap everywhere…even in our business. Shoddy workmanship is abundant and we have to deal with warranty and safety issues often.</p>
<p>:) “Vitamin water” in my opinion is a prime example of something we can do without. I mean, spend your money where you want to, but if you really didn’t have money for food, enriched water in plastic bottles is not what you would be spending your pennies on, right?</p>
<p>In college I had a friend who only allowed himself to own 50 material items … everything counted … toothbrush - that’s one … a pair of socks - that’s two more. At the time I thought he was nutty … OK, he was nutty (this is the guy I’ve referenced who quit HS the day he got into college) … but over time his idea about minimizing possessions has a lot of positives. 50 might be a tad low but the idea of not trying to accumulate more and better stuff certainly rings true to me.</p>
<p>mommusic tell that to my 11 year old daughter who doesn’t like to drink plain water. Better than a lot of other drinks, like soda or gatoraid ( and even fruit excessive fruit juice drinking according to our pediatrician ) Luckily, I still have money for food and can buy something my child enjoys…</p>
<p>Bottled water, we are trying to really limit this, it became out of control in our house and D was having environmental breakdown about it.</p>
<p>We are carefully shopping for holidays and all 4 birthdays in November! But if we don’t shop we are not helping our economy! buying gifts that are somewhat necessity, gas cards for kids, and group gifts for little ones, piano lessons and drum lessons are now included in gifts.</p>
<p>I don’t think we need to apologize for what we choose to eat or drink , do we ?</p>
<p>You’re right, of course, lje62. And I think it’s “healthier” (both for the psyche and the economy) to enjoy good food and drink than to shop-shop-shop to accumulate trinkets made in China. </p>
<p>By good food and drink of course I mean wine, cheese, and a good crusty bread with tomatoes, olive oil, olives, and some chocolate. ;)</p>
<p>[YouTube</a> - George Carlin STUFF stand up](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-RsXImwaPk&feature=related]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-RsXImwaPk&feature=related)</p>
<p>I lived with a dedicated Buddhist for a month. I get to understand about the meaning of a less materialistic life. It is enviromental friendly too, but rather time consuming and less convenient, like recycling rain water for the toilet and watering the plants. I was invited to live in a monastery in Nepal and listen to some lamas/sage (?), I am sure it will be good for my materialistic soul. </p>
<p>I don’t need stuff but I WANT them. Buying and owning quality stuff make me happy. Sometimes it motivates me to work hard and try my best. Wearing good quality clothing make me look 20 lbs lighter and less frumpy. Good quality shoes are much more comfortable than lesser quality ones. I have enough stuff but not enough good stuff, the replacement take a lifetime. </p>
<p>I still don’t know what will happen to our economy if enough of us stopping consuming and spending and borrowing.</p>
<p>I still don’t know what will happen to our economy if enough of us stopping consuming and spending and borrowing.</p>
<p>I don’t know what will happen to the planet if we * don’t *</p>
<p>I’ve often thought that the guy who dreamed up selling bottled water must be a genius. That product has to have one of the highest profit margins around today. Imagine - you take perfectly ordinary water out of the the tap, do some sort of minimal “purification,” package it into a plastic bottle, market it as a must-have health tonic, and sell it at price per gallon higher than that of gasoline. Your only raw material comes right out of the tap at a price that borders on free. Pure genius!</p>
<p>I’ve been trying to think of the next product in this line. How about bottled air? Not oxygen, just air. With the market already primed by the bottled water scam, someone can make a killing selling air as a must-have accessory to go with the water.</p>
<p>Just this week and I simply cannot remember where, I heard of a king who carried a gold box for 20 years containing the last breath of his beloved.</p>
<p>Re: Bottled Water. Make sure it has the word ‘spring’ on it somewhere, otherwise it is just gussied-up tap water. </p>
<p>What do you do if you have lots of ‘stuff’ that was inherited by your spouse and 75% of it a) isn’t your style, b) is unusable/broken/worn out, and c) your spouse won’t get rid of <em>anything</em>! All our storage in the house is loaded up with stuff from Dad’s house and he died 10 yrs ago. The nicer ‘stuff’ is out and used, the rest is just collecting dust. How do I persuade an otherwise reasonable man that we aren’t taking all this with us when we move in a couple of years?</p>
<p>My MIL is a living example of what a disaster being a pack rat can be. After weeks of heavy duty moving, cleaning and throwing out, she still has two big rooms filled to the ceiling with junk, and the attic besides. Parting with every single thing is a huge trauma. I guess packing all the junk in moving boxers and storing them that way is one way to streamline your daily living space. That is what I am starting to do. I bought moving boxes very cheaply used from a moving service. Also picked up a bunch of boxes with lids for free from some office places. Pack as though you are going to move, organizing each box and labeling the best you can.</p>
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<p>This made me think of a feature I saw on our local PBS channel last night. A family had turned their yard into a truck farm (basically) and had grown 6000 pounds of produce the following year (and were shooting for 10,000 pounds for the next year). </p>
<p>The surprising facts: their home is in Pasadena and they were using 0.1 acres to farm!</p>
<p>Our next door neighbors have planted a lot of vegetables this year in their yard–their tomatoes were fabulous! So much better than the store tomatoes.</p>
<p>My cousin hasn’t used her living room or dining room for 25 years because they are filled with stuff from her late MIL and her M. Now my aunt is 100 and living in an assisted living facility and my cousin is finally talking about having a sale. I’ve often wondered how my cousin’s kids felt about their house which is otherwise beautiful, growing up that way.</p>
<p>^Our family’s cautionary tale was when a wealthy relative died who loved buying stuff. It was top-quality stuff for a variety of hobbies but a great deal of it never got used. It took us over a year to clean out the house and sell off or donate everything. </p>
<p>I will not do that to my children.</p>
<p>I’ve seen stories about that Pasadena family. Very interesting…but I live in a condo with only a balcony that gets eastern exposure. It’s fine for herbs during our short summers but I’ll never grow veggies there.</p>